Vladimir Putin eyes presidential return from driving seat of his Lada

Published on Monday 30 August 2010 17:01

GIVING an unusual interview from behind the wheel of a small yellow Lada, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has hinted he will return to the presidency in 2012 for six more years.

• Prime minister Vladimir Putin is driving his Lada on a 100-mile trip around eastern Russia, meeting locals to discuss issues when he stops

Asked by the Kommersant daily newspaper in the interview whether Russia's 2012 presidential election did not worry him because he had already decided it, Mr Putin replied: "No, it interests me like... I wanted to say like everyone, but in fact more than everyone else.

"But I don't want to make a fetish out of it."

Mr Putin ruled as president from 2000-8 before handing the presidency to Dmitry Medvedev, to observe a law banning a third consecutive term.

However, Mr Putin will be free to run again in 2012 for a newly extended six-year term.

Kommersant said the interview was conducted during a 100-mile drive in a bright yellow Lada Kalina car between the cities of Khabarovsk and Chita in Russia's far east.

"The most important thing is these problems of 2012 don't derail us from the path of stable development," Mr Putin added in the interview with his favourite journalist, Andrei Kolesnikov.

The prime minister also robustly defended police crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters in recent months. He said those who marched must obey current laws requiring them to seek advance permission from local authorities.

"If you get (permission], you go and march," Mr Putin said. "If you don't - you have no right to. Go without permission, and you will be hit on the head with batons. That's all there is to it."

He added: "What's good about the contemporary world?. You can say something around the corner from a public toilet and the world will hear because all the TV cameras will be there."

Moscow authorities this month suddenly fenced off Triumph Square, a popular rallying point for opposition protesters, saying they planned to build an underground car park. Opposition groups said the previously unannounced car park plan was a ruse to stop protests.

Mr Putin said he was unaware of the square's closure and reinforced this by using a popular Soviet Communist Party expression: "Believe me, I don't know about that ... I give you my honest word as a party member."

He later dismissed as "blabber" the notion he was still running the country, saying he and president Medvedev frequently discussed foreign policy but claimed that the decisions were always left to Mr Medvedev.

The Ekho Moskvy radio station, which gives airtime to opposition views, later polled listeners on whether they backed another Putin presidency.

Some 86 per cent said "no", a result which reflected the station's Moscow middle-class audience. But it is not typical of average Russians, among whom Mr Putin remains popular, polls show.