VLADIMIR Putin said yesterday he intended to become a powerful and long-serving prime minister of Russia after leaving the Kremlin, but rejected suggestions that he would dictate orders to his likely successor.
Giving a final annual news conference before his second term ends in May, Mr Putin said he fully trusted the Kremlin's presidential candidate, Dmitry Medvedev, first deputy prime minister, and would have no problems working with him.
"Dmitry Ana
tolyevich (Medvedev] and I have worked together for 15 years and I would never have deigned to support a candidate for president if he needed coddling and advice on how to behave," Mr Putin told hundreds of reporters at the Kremlin in a marathon event lasting a record four hours and 40 minutes.
Political analysts have questioned how Mr Medvedev would occupy Russia's all-powerful presidency and work effectively with his former boss as a subordinate.
Mr Putin, 55, said he and Mr Medvedev would "divide our responsibilities and I can assure you that there will be no problem here".
On foreign policy, the Kremlin leader repeated warnings that Moscow would target Russian missiles at Nato countries which hosted parts of a planned US missile defence shield and would strongly oppose independence for the Serb province of Kosovo.
But overall, he struck a less aggressive tone than before, saying Moscow was more interested in dealing with social and economic problems at home than in a new Cold War.
"To suppose that we aspire to return to the times of the Cold War is just too bold a supposition," Mr Putin said.
Russia was willing to work "towards the construction of a positive dialogue" with whoever won the US presidential election and did not intend to target any country with its nuclear missiles except in "extreme necessity", he said.
Mr Putin also addressed for the first time western news reports that he had amassed a huge personal fortune while in power, dismissing the claims as "rubbish".
At points, Mr Putin's tone changed and he turned philosophical, reflecting on his time in office. Turning to his legacy from eight years as president, he said he believed he had not let down the Russian people. "For me, that is the most important thing. All the tasks we set ourselves have been achieved."
'DO YOU WANT ME TO EAT SOIL FROM A FLOWERPOT?'VLADIMIR Putin's four-hour performance at the Kremlin mixed flirtatious banter with metaphors about snot and showed a gift for sarcastic brush-offs worthy of a stand-up comedian.
He twice referred to a runny nose during the annual presidential news conference – to dismiss rumours about his personal wealth and to discuss the pressures of public office.
Newspaper reports about his alleged fortune were just rubbish, said Mr Putin, "excavated from someone's nose and then spread on those bits of paper". Explaining how he worked his guts out "like a galley slave" for eight years in the Kremlin, Mr Putin said leaders must take firm decisions and not wobble in the face of adversity.
"Heads of state have no right to whinge, or drool … if they are going to slobber and blow snot and say things are bad, bad, then that's how it will be."
Mr Putin seemed to be thinking about European bodies, and not the institutional kind, when asked about a news article alleging Russia's gas giant Gazprom was eating into Europe's body. "Why are the Americans so worried about a European body? Maybe because they want to tear themselves away from it, nice body that it is," he said, with generous hand gestures to make his point.
To illustrate her question about demographics, one woman journalist said she personally would like to have a child. "Why are you asking me?" Mr Putin shot back.
Asked about guarantees about the rouble, Mr Putin turned on the reporter. "What do you want? Do you want me to eat soil from a flowerpot? Make an oath on blood?"
Spitting out the Russian acronym for the OSCE's election watchdog, that sounded very close to "bitch" in English, he said Russia would not take lessons on democracy from Western observers: "Well, let them rather teach their own wives to cook soup."
The full article contains 709 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
