Moscow – President Vladimir Putin told Russians during a nationally televised call-in show Tuesday that he would vacate the Kremlin in 2008 when his second term ends.
But he hinted at some subsequent political role when he added, “As they say in the military, I will find my place in the ranks.”
While dismissing the notion that he would engineer constitutional changes to allow himself a third term, he responded jokingly to criticism that he had centralized power, taken over much of the broadcast media and shut out political opposition.
“I do not see my goal as sitting in the Kremlin endlessly and having Channels One, Two and Three constantly show the same face, and if someone chooses a different channel, the FSB director would appear on the screen and tell viewers to go back to the first three channels,” he said during the nearly three-hour program, alluding to a joke from Soviet times. The FSB is the domestic successor of the KGB.
“I don’t consider it appropriate to introduce any changes in the constitution,” said Putin, 52, whose future is the subject of constant speculation here. Pressed afterward by reporters about what role he might seek, he said, “Let’s maintain the suspense,” according to the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass.
