Party’s Triumph Raises Question of Putin’s Plans

[Joanne98]

Source: NYT

MOSCOW, Dec. 2 —With President Vladimir V. Putin’s opponents persistently hobbled by the Kremlin, his party swept Sunday to the kind of landslide long predicted for the parliamentary elections. Yet the results, while a triumph for Mr. Putin, also usher in a new era of political instability for Russia.

Even as Mr. Putin has been accumulating power and popularity, he has been stirring deep uncertainty about his intentions, making it all but impossible to answer a fundamental question about Russia’s future: Come next spring, who will be in charge?

Yielding to the constitutional limit of two consecutive terms, Mr. Putin has said he will not be a candidate for president in March. But he has declared that he will retain significant influence, whether as prime minister, leader of his party, United Russia, or a vague role described here as “father of the nation.”

To some degree, the results on Sunday certainly reflect Russian voter satisfaction with what Mr. Putin regards as his biggest achievement — restoring the economic strength and international status of a Russia laid low by the disarray of the 1990’s after the fall of Communism. But Mr. Putin’s aides acknowledge the party’s showing has done nothing to clarify the leadership transition when Mr. Putin’s term expires.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/world/europe/03russia.html?ref=world