Putin plans Kremlin comeback

On Friday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin dropped his strongest hint yet that he has plans to return to the Kremlin and run for president in the 2012 elections. The Financial Times reports:

Speaking to foreign academics and journalists, he said that he and President Dmitry Medvedev, his protégé, would together decide who would stand for the presidency after Mr. Medvedev’s term ended. …Dismissing suggestions that there might be a contest over the presidency, Mr Putin said: “There was no competition between us in 2007 and we won’t have any in 2012.”

Before Vladimir Putin’s second presidential term ended in 2008, we showed that Putin has no plans to relinquish control over Russia. In 2007, we wrote,

Although Medvedev says he supports an amount of freedom in the financial sector and is part of a new post-Communist generation of Russian politicians, few believe he will stand on his own legs as a candidate and that Vladimir Putin will retire to St. Petersburg to write his book. …Putin’s insiders typically are old security or intelligence hands, but Medvedev’s background as a lawyer and technocrat make him easier to control. Stratfor’s analysis is that President Medvedev puts an agreeable face on Russian politics but allows Putin to play the puppetmaster.Watch for Vladimir Putin to use Medvedev to increase his own sway over Russia’s direction. And be ready to watch Russian democracy die in the process.

Throughout President Medvedev’s term, Putin has unofficially been at the helm of Russia. Now he is gearing up to make his power official once again. Democracy in Russia is taking its last breaths. For more about the future of Russia, read Russia and China in Prophecy.