Vladimir Putin accepted his ruling United Russia party’s nomination on Sunday as its candidate in the March 4 presidential vote, paving the way for his return to the country’s top office after four years as prime minister. The timing of the announcement, which was a certainty after Putin revealed in September that he planned to return to the Kremlin next year, appeared aimed to give United Russia a boost in a parliamentary election next Sunday amid flagging support.
Putin accepted the nomination before it was even subject to a final vote at a United Russia congress also attended by President Dmitry Medvedev. Putin and Medvedev had announced plans to swap jobs next year at party meeting on September 24. That plan was met with mixed reactions among Russians, raising fears of increasing stagnation in the world’s top energy producer and prompting complaints that Russia’s political future had been determined behind closed doors.
Polls suggest Putin, president from 2000-2008, will win the presidency despite recent declines in approval ratings, but they show his party could lose its constitutional two-thirds majority in the State Duma lower parliament house in the Dec. 4 election.
PUTIN SAYS FOREIGN POWERS SEEK TO SWAY RUSSIAN VOTES: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that foreign powers were seeking to influence Russia’s December 4 parliamentary election and a March presidential vote in which he confirmed he will run.
“We know that these days, in the run-up to the State Duma election, the presidential election, representatives of some foreign countries are gathering those they are paying money to, so-called grant recipients, to instruct them and assign work in order to influence the election campaign themselves,” Putin said after accepting his party’s presidential nomination.
He said any such activity was a “wasted effort, as we say money thrown at the wind, firstly because Judas is not the most respected biblical character in our country, secondly, because it would be better to pay off their debt with this money and stop pursuing inefficient and costly economic policies.”
