Putin maps strategy to retain power

Putin maps strategy to retain power

By Catherine Belton in Moscow

Published: February 14 2008 19:50 | Last updated: February 14 2008 19:50

Vladimir Putin has mapped out how he would retain a powerful political role as prime minister in tandem with Dmitry Medvedev, his preferred successor as Russian president, but insisted he was not addicted to power.

In his last press conference before elections in March, after which he will step down, Mr Putin made clear he had taken the lead in drafting Russia’s development strategy for the next 12 years. The president said he would stay on as prime minister as long as he could implement the strategy he had “formulated”.

“The premiership is not a transitional post. If I can see that in this capacity I can fulfil these goals, I will work as long as possible. There is no other answer,” he said.

In a marathon question and answer session for four hours and 40 minutes in front of more than 1,000 journalists, Mr Putin seemed reluctant to step down from the Kremlin tribune, as he relished peppering his comments with rumbustious attacks on the US over foreign policy and typical salty language.

He said the post of prime minister would give him sufficient power to plot the country’s economic course, control the budget and create conditions to ensure national defence. He saw no grounds for conflict with Mr Medvedev, with whom he said he had built a “personal chemistry” and trusted.

Analysts believe Mr Medvedev, a 42-year-old former lawyer from St Petersburg who currently serves as first deputy prime minister, will initially remain in Mr Putin’s shadow. But they fear the combination of Mr Putin as prime minister and Mr Medvedev as president, who according to the constitution should wield more power, could eventually deteriorate into an inherently unstable system of dual power.

Mr Putin, however, insisted he would not have picked Mr Medvedev if he believed he would need “coddling or advice on current matters”. “In more than 15 years of work together we have become used to listening to each other,” he said.

Mr Medvedev’s economic programme, which he is due to present at a forum in Siberia on Friday, would not oppose his own plan for Russia’s development up to 2020, but would “complement it”.

Mr Putin made clear he would not subordinate himself in future to his protégé, saying he would not hang Mr Medvedev’s portrait in his office as the country’s president as other officials could. “I have been president for eight years and worked pretty well. I won’t need to hang his portrait. We have other means of building relations,” he said.

He poured scorn on speculation in the western press that he had built up an enormous personal fortune while in power, saying the reports had been “picked out of their noses and then smeared all over the papers”.

He said: “I am the richest person not only in Europe but also in the world. I collect emotions. And I am rich because the Russian people twice entrusted me with the leadership of such a great country as Russia. I think this is my greatest fortune.”