Vladimir Putin has said it will take decades to reform Russia and that he wants to keep shaping the fate of the world’s largest country, as he gave his strongest indication he will serve a third term as president from 2012.

 

The Russian prime minister described the process of turning Russia into the kind of stable strong state he wants as a “decades-long” job and argued he had no choice but to be involved.

 

“I only have two choices,” he told the daily Kommersant newspaper. “Either to watch from the bank how the waters are flowing away and how something is collapsing or falling away or to get involved,” he said. “I prefer to be involved.”

 

Although the 57-year old former KGB spy refused to confirm whether he would definitely run in a presidential election in 2012, he admitted it was uppermost in his thoughts. “It interests me as much as ... I was going to say 'as much as anyone’, but really more than everyone else!” he quipped. “But I am not making a fetish out of it!”

 

Mr Putin occupied the presidency from 2000-2008 and then gifted the job to Dmitry Medvedev, a hand-picked loyalist, due to a constitutional limit on serving a third consecutive term. However, he is now eligible to return to the presidency in 2012 and to serve a further two consecutive terms if he chooses. The terms have since been extended from four to six years, meaning he could stay in power until 2024 at which point he would be 72.

 

In the same interview, Mr Putin said he was unfazed by his high but fluctuating popularity ratings and had harsh words for Russia’s enfeebled anti-Kremlin Opposition. Activists have been challenging a repressive law that forces them to get permission from the authorities every time they want to hold a protest by organising regular “unsanctioned” protests in central Moscow. Riot police have consistently dispersed such gatherings, often brutally, prompting the US state department to urge restraint. But Mr Putin said he backed the crackdowns and accused the anti-Kremlin activists of trying to deliberately “provoke” the police into attacking them.

 

“You need to get permission (for protests) from the local authorities,” he opined. “If you have received it, then go and demonstrate. If you have taken to the streets without the right to do so then you are going to get bashed over the head with a truncheon. That is all there is to it.”

 

Mr Putin also poured cold water too on the idea that relations between Russia and the United States had undergone a dramatic improvement. Complaining that Washington was continuing to rearm neighbouring Georgia, he said US anti-missile plans for central Europe had not been watered down enough.

 

 

By Andrew Osborn, Moscow

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/7971827/Vladimir-Putin-gives-strongest-indication-he-will-serve-third-term-as-president.html

Seeing as he can do what he likes anyway and clearly makes up the rules as he goes along, he might as well just save everyone a lot of trouble and say that he's going to remain president for life.:dozey:

but i honestly tought (heard) there was another president now, not him. :thinking:

but i honestly tought (heard) there was another president now, not him. :thinking:

 

If there was, he's probably now working in the Siberian salt mines!:P

He pretty much is serving a 3rd term!

Putin is a major embarrassment for Russia. He's like "Dear Leader" over there in North Korea. Come on guys, this isn't the 1940's anymore.

Officially he's the Prime Minister, I think.

Yet, he's far more popular in Russia than Obama is in the USA, maybe he's actually good for the Country.

Yes, because a politician's popularity directly correlates to their positive effect on the country.

Can't believe this. Like it's been said before, that really reminds me of the way Kim Jong Il rules North Korea.

Well he's actually done a great deal of good for Russia which is why he's popular, he runs the country in a way the west doesn't like but then Russia isn't a western nation, as a democracy it's very young.

What you just said is devoid of specificity or real analysis. "A great deal of good for Russia" - be specific. What? "He runs the country in a way the west doesn't like" - how is Russia managed differently from the western socialist republics? They look quite similar to me.

I had no idea people are interested in that kind of things here:uhoh: moreover there are really few russians...

Well, it sort of is the biggest nation in the world.

Hes improved Russias economy from the complete mess it was in the 1990s a great deal of people now have jobs, better income,pensions etc, I would hardly call that a bad thing.

Some of his actions are a bit questionable but overall hes been good for the Country.

Of course, a number of journalists have mysteriously disappeared...

Of course, a number of journalists have mysteriously disappeared...

 

That's what I mean by questionable:P

And while we're at it