Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was first elected to the office 17 years ago, said on Friday that he would consider running for re-election next year.
The Kremlin has been coy about whether the 64-year-old head of state would run for another six-year term in the March 2018 election. In early July, his spokesman said the matter was still undecided.
Putin was on a visit to the Siberian region of Buryatia on Friday when a veteran practically begged him to consider running for re-election.
“We have a request for you. When there is the next presidential election, we all ask you to run again for this post. We will be very happy,” the man said in comments carried by state news agency TASS.
Putin replied curtly: “OK, I will think about it. Thank you.”
Putin served two consecutive four-year terms from 2000 to 2008, the constitutional limit. He then served as prime minister until 2012, when he again became president.
Shortly after his second presidential term, the constitution was amended to enable the head of state to serve six-year terms.
Putin is likely to officially announce his candidacy before Russia’s regional elections in September, when governors and local legislators will be chosen, said Nabi Abdullaev, a Russian political and security expert.
“Political machinery behind these campaigns and votes needs directions. These people would want to understand what will happen with the country’s leadership in six months,” said Abdullaev, associate director for Russia at the global consultancy Control Risks Group.
“Without a clear message from Putin, even a little uncertainty may have a destabilizing effect in the regions, something that the Russian leadership would want to avoid in the run-up to the presidential election,” Abdullaev said.
If Putin does serve another term, which would end in 2024, it could be his last. The constitution would have to be amended to enable another consecutive term, and Putin would be more than 70 years old.
“To be honest, I suspect Putin is already tired of the job but feel she has yet to find a suitably talented and trustworthy successor,”said Mark Galeotti of the Institute of International Relations Prague.
— dpa
Lake Baikal ‘extremely polluted’
Moscow: Russia’s Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest freshwater lake, has extremely high pollution levels, President Vladimir Putin warned Friday while visiting the Siberian lake.
Lake Baikal is a Unesco World Heritage site, the world’s deepest lake at 1,700 metres and also the oldest at 25 million years. Tourists flock there to enjoy the unique wildlife and clear waters.
Putin, while meeting officials in a room looking onto the shimmering waters of the lake, complained that “significant areas around Baikal have suffered extremely high pollution.”
Saying that Baikal “belongs to the entire planet,” Putin insisted that preserving it for future generations is “undoubtedly a government priority.”
The Russian strongman has declared that environmental issues are a personal passion and has spent time tracking whales and tigers and even flown with migrating cranes. In 2009 he went down to the bottom of Lake Baikal in a mini-submarine.
But he was also instrumental in keeping a polluting factory open beside the lake and has presided over a crackdown on environmental activists and non-governmental organisations, including those specifically trying to protect Baikal. — AFP
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