MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin, the longest Kremlin chief since Josef Stalin, said in a speech aired on Sunday that he has been considering the succession and suggested that there could be a match between several candidates.
Putin was a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB who held the presidency on the last day of 1999, served as president from 1999 to 2008, then as prime minister until 2012, and then from 2012 to the present.
“I always think about it,” Putin said, 72. When asked if he had considered state television's succession in the film, Putin's quarter-century succession to Putin, Russia's Paramount leader titled “Russia, Kremlin, Putin, 25.”
“Ultimately, the choice is for the people, the Russian people,” Putin said. “I think there should be one person, or there should be several people so that people can choose.”
Although Putin has no clear successor under the Russian Constitution, if the president cannot perform his duties, then Prime Minister – Mikhail Mishustin will assume the presidential power at present.
(Reuters report; editor of Guy Falcombridge)
