Who would become Russia's next president

Press Secretary of Russia's prime minister Dmitry Peskov, responding to former Soviet statesman Mikhail Gorbachev remark that the two leaders would decide between themselves who would become Russia's next president.

"First of all, I would like to reiterate that the time of pre-election moods is not here yet." "Personally I believe that those who Gorbachev had criticised never replied - neither one, nor the other - the reason is very simple: they never sat and agreed who to be Russia's next president, they said they would discuss who would stand for presidency."

Peskov agreed this would be done so, in order not to "compete with each other... At least, this is what they say." "They simply cannot have an agreement who would be next president, they may agree only on who will stand for it, and the final decision will be made over the national election, as simple as that, that is why the criticism did not cause any reply."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said last month he does not want to compete with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the 2012 presidential elections."I do not want to see a power struggle; it would be bad for Russia," Medvedev said.He said he had no idea who might run for the presidential elections."It might be Medvedev, it might be Putin, and it might be someone else entirely," the president said.Vladimir Putin has not ruled out running in the next presidential election."We will reach an agreement because we are of the same blood and of the same political outlook," Putin famously said in May 2009 at the Valdai International Discussion Club meeting, in answer to a question about the competition between the two leaders.
Media agencies