Putin Agrees to Be Protégé’s Prime Minister

newyork times
Published: December 18, 2007

MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin said Monday that he intended to become prime minister next year, ensuring his dominance of the Russian government even after his term ends.

Mr. Putin told a meeting of his party, United Russia, that he had accepted an offer from his close aide, Dmitri A. Medvedev to move to the prime minister’s office if Mr. Medvedev wins the presidency in March, which is highly likely.

“If our people will trust Mr. Medvedev and elect him the new president of the Russian federation, I will be prepared to continue our joint work — in this case, in the position of premier of the government,” Mr. Putin said.

The announcement ends a carefully choreographed power transition that began in October, when Mr. Putin first suggested that he would find a way to retain influence after his term ended, and culminated last week when he endorsed Mr. Medvedev for the presidency, and Mr. Medvedev in turn said he wanted Mr. Putin to be prime minister.

Mr. Putin in his speech called Mr. Medvedev — who is a first deputy prime minister and chairman of Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly — “an exceptionally honest, decent man.”

“We should not be ashamed or frightened to deliver the main levers of control over the country, the fate of Russia, into the hands of a man like him,” Mr. Putin said.

Mr. Putin cannot run for a third consecutive presidential term because of constitutional term limits, which he has vowed not to change.

But the move on Monday raised the prospect that at some point in Mr. Medvedev’s term, Mr. Medvedev could step down, which would propel Mr. Putin, as prime minister, back to the presidency. A special presidential election would then be held, in which Mr. Putin could run.

The president is far more powerful in Russia than the prime minister, but Mr. Putin said Monday that he would not seek to change the formal authority of either office.

Still, given that Mr. Medvedev has never held an elected office and has spent almost his entire career as Mr. Putin’s deputy, it seems highly likely that after the election, Mr. Putin will continue to be the de facto, if not the formal, head of Russia.

Such arrangement, though, is unprecedented in Russian history, and some experts warned that power in Russia has traditionally flowed from the office, not the personality. While Mr. Putin may be the more influential figure, Mr. Medvedev will control the armed forces, the security services and other critical parts of the government.