By DPA
Moscow : Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to become the top candidate of the country’s dominant party in the parliamentary elections due in December, fuelling speculation he would become prime minister when his presidential term ends next year.
Putin is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term as president, and speculation has been rife about the distilling of power after upcoming elections.
Putin’s surprise appointment last week of Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, 66 — revealing him as a possible presidential candidate — prompted speculation that Putin may look to share power with a weaker, near-retirement-age president.
Addressing the United Russia’s party conference Monday, Putin called the possibility that he become prime minister “entirely realistic”, though it was still “too early to think about it”, Interfax news agency reported.
Putin said at least two conditions would first have to be met: United Russia must emerge winner in the Dec 2 State Duma elections, while the eventual president must be “a decent, capable, effective and modern-type politician, with whom I might work in tandem”, Interfax reported.
While Putin’s name assumes star position at the top of United Russia’s ballot, he has refused to become a member of the party and is not obliged to take a seat in parliament.
Though he has remained independent, United Russia is the only political party behind which he has consistently thrown his support, speaking regularly at their conventions.
“That Vladimir Putin is going into the elections together with the party, assures us that United Russia will be able to make up the Duma parliamentary majority,” Andrei Vorobyov, Duma deputy and senior campaign official, told Interfax.
Prior to Monday’s events, pollsters predicted that United Russia would secure 45 to 55 percent of the Duma’s 450 seats.