As Vladimir Putin hits the campaign trail, is the Russian president jealous?

After two consecutive terms in power Putin stepped down handing over the presidency to his long-time protege Medvedev in a choreographed election in 2008.

One of Medvedev's first steps in his new role was pushing through constitutional changes lengthening presidential terms to six years from four, fuelling speculation about a possible comeback by Putin.

If Putin, who in 2012 will turn 60, indeed returns to the Kremlin, he will likely stay in power for another 12 years, becoming Russia or the Soviet Union's longest-serving ruler after dictator Stalin.

By comparison, Soviet ruler Leonid Brezhnev, who in his late years became the butt of senility-themed jokes, ran the country for 18 years, while another political veteran Nikita Khrushchev stayed at the helm of the nation for 11 years.

Putin however would perhaps be more pleased if compared to the U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt who, the premier noted this week, served four consecutive terms, from 1933 until his death in office in 1945.

While opinion polls and analysts say that the technocratic president has not managed to eclipse his mentor's popularity, he has clearly acquired a taste for power and made attempts at asserting his independence.

Newsweek's Russia edition said this week that some of Putin's recent stunts had not been agreed with the Kremlin and when the premier last month personally took controls of an amphibious jet to put out forest fires, the Kremlin considered it an outright violation of the rules of the game.

“They say the president was very angry,” an unnamed Kremlin official told the magazine.

Putin's minders keep a poker face. “It was a routine working trip,” Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP, referring to his tour across the Far East and Siberia.

During that voyage Putin personally drove over 2,000 kilometers in a canary-yellow Lada sports car, two identical cars in tow in case the lead vehicle broke down.

“Medvedev is ready and wants to run for a second term,” said Newsweek. “Putin is on the fence and they have not yet had a final talk about it.”

1|2

PrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email