Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has not decided yet whether he will run for presidency next time, he told the international media company Bloomberg on September 1, 2016, in Vladivostok.
“I either will or will not take part in the elections. If I do not, another person will be elected head of state, President of Russia. The people will decide for whom they should vote,” the Russian leader told Bloomberg News Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait.
Asked about the ‘area where the next leader would come’, Putin answered his successor should be a ‘fairly young yet mature person’.
He recalled that the 2016 parliamentary election would be held in September in Russia. Before making a decision on campaigning for the presidency, Putin is going to see its results.
According to Vladimir Putin, one should not cling to power at any price.
“I just always try to feel the spirits of the people, feel their needs, their mood for patterns and methods of solving the tasks, their priorities and I am guided by all this in the first place. I believe that it is the most important aspect in the job of any person who does the kind of work that the Russian people have entrusted me,” he told Bloomberg.
In accordance with Russia’s law, Vladimir Putin, 63, has the right to stand in the 2018 presidential election.
“I was the President of the Russian Federation for eight years and after that, without violating the Constitution or readjusting it to my own needs, I just decided not to run for the third presidential term, which was impossible; within the framework of the current Constitution. Our Constitution stipulates that one can be elected for two terms running. So I followed the rules: I was elected two times and then I just left and changed my job – I have worked as the Chairman of the Government for four years. In accordance with the Constitution, when I regained this right in four years, I run for the presidency, I was elected and I am the President now,” he said.
The G20 Summit is now in progress in China’s Hangzhou. On Monday, Vladimir Putin met with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 Summit. The two leaders discussed the situation in Syria and Ukraine.
belsat.eu, following kremlin.ru
