抖阴ap

MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin has given Russia’s farmers, blue-collar workers, soldiers, parents and retirees good reasons to want him back in the Kremlin.

In a four-hour nationally televised appearance, the prime minister said not a word Wednesday about his plans for next year’s presidential election. The topic has been a subject of fervent debate recently as President Dmitry Medvedev has shown a desire to stay on for another term.

But by portraying himself as the defender of a strong Russia and making a string of campaignlike promises to improve the lives of ordinary people, Putin sent an unmistakable signal that he intends to reclaim the presidency.

“The nation needs decades of stable and calm development without any sharp movements and ill-conceived experiments (based on liberal policy),” the 58-year-old leader said during his annual address before parliament.

Putin, Russia’s president from 2000 to 2008, was barred by the constitution from serving a third consecutive term and groomed Medvedev to succeed him. Both men have said they will decide together which one of them will run in March, but the decision is understood to be Putin’s.

The uncertainty seems to suit both of them. The debate over which one will run serves to stimulate interest in the presidential election.