Putin Will Retain Influence After His Term Expires

Vladimir Putin will keep his political influence after he steps down as president in 2008 by taking a key position in parliament or the government, a senior Russian official predicted in comments published Saturday, The Associated Press reports.

Sergei Stepashin, a former prime minister and ex-intelligence agency chief who is head of the audit chamber, said that Putin had no intention of quitting the political scene when his second and last presidential term ends in March 2008. “He won’t go. … I think he will find a way that will allow him to stay on despite leaving,” Stepashin was quoted as saying in an interview with the mass-market Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Stepashin said Putin could become the head of a political party, parliament speaker, prime minister or head of the state council, a powerful advisory body.

Political analysts believe there is intense maneuvering by the former KGB officer to ensure he controls Russia from behind the scenes after he steps down in 2008, as he obliged to do under the constitution.

But Stepashin’s comments mark the first time a Russian official has speculated publicly about Putin’s future plans. Stepashin, like Putin, was once head of the main KGB successor agency, the Federal Security Service, and he briefly served as prime minister under former President Boris Yeltsin.

In a televised “talk with the nation” in October, Putin indicated he expected to continue having a role setting government policy, telling his countrymen cryptically that “you and I will be able to exert influence on the life of our country and guarantee its development.”

Observers say he is most likely to take over the helm of the ruling party, United Russia, giving him a political platform from which to play puppet-master.

Olga Khrystanovskaya, a sociologist who is an expert on Putin’s inner circle, says that the distribution of power between the presidency, the prime minister’s office and parliament could be changed to ensure the new president does not hold too much power.

So far there is no clear successor to the immensely popular 54-year-old Putin, whose approval ratings are close to 80 percent. The two main contenders are the hawkish defense minister Sergei Ivanov and technocrat deputy premier Dmitry Medvedev — who have both been tested on the electorate through regular appearances on state television.

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