Moscow, June 25: Russian President Vladimir Putin issued his first hint today that he would stand for a second term in office in elections scheduled for March. Putin, who enjoys overwhelming popularity, had last week brushed aside questions about his political plans during a marathon nationally-televised press conference. But in comments from the Scottish capital Edinburgh, Putin seemed to take the fact that he would run for a second term as a given, saying that he had no plans to change Russian electoral law to run for a third term. "There will be no third term of president Putin," the Russian news agency Interfax quoted Putin as saying.
"In Russia, we will live according to the main law of he country," he said.
Putin added that "there is no and will be no soviet-lie centralization in Russia," Interfax reported.
Bureau Report