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By Li Ying Russia is barreling into a season of deepening political uncertainty as neither President Dmitry Medvedev nor Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has stated which one of them will stand for the presidency in 2012. Putin said Wednesday in an announcement that he would usher in a lame-duck period that would presumably extend until next March's election and that he may run for president in 2012, a day after Medvedev told China's CCTV in an interview that "the decision (of running in 2012) will be taken very shortly." "Of course, this decision should be taken sooner or later. But there is almost a year before the polls, and all this fuss does not contribute to a normal working structure," Putin was quoted as saying by AFP, "If we give some improper signals now, half the administration and much of the government will stop working in anticipation of changes to come." Xia Yishan, a researcher at the China Institutes of International Studies, told the Global Times that Medvedev and Putin had a tacit understanding to wait until the last minute to make the announcement, in order to minimize fallout over the issue. "There has always been a bond of trust between them that would be remarkable in any country's leading politicians. Now, they are actually aware of each other's decision," Xia said. "However, it is the stability of the political situation in Russia that they do not want to unravel," he added. Officials have said privately that the plan will be announced in September or October, according to The New York Times. Putin and Medvedev have repeatedly said they would not run against each other. "The stakes are high – the next leader can stay in power for a six-year term under a constitutional change," Xia said. "I don't think that Medvedev is really challenging Putin's role as a senior partner, but they do have differing views on various perspectives due to their backgrounds – one hails from a military past and the other has a more liberal standpoint from his days in academia." Russia's ruling party United Russia wants Putin to stand in the election, Russian news agencies quoted a top party official as saying Thursday, according to Reuters. Putin vacated the president's job mainly because of the Russian constitution three years ago and he certainly has a broader base of support, Xia added. "After all, he has led the Russian people through a difficult time when Russian politics were a mess and the economy was reeling from the disintegration of the Soviet Union." Agencies contributed to this story |
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