Putin Nominee Speaks to Lawmakers

MOSCOW, Sept. 13 -- President Vladimir Putin's nominee to become Russian prime minister Thursday fueled speculation that he will run for president in March 2008 when he refused to rule out a bid for the country's top post.

"If I do achieve something in the prime minister's post, this is an option that is not ruled out," said Viktor Zubkov, 65, after meeting with legislators in the Duma, the lower house of parliament. The Duma will vote on Zubkov's nomination Friday, and with the backing of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party he is certain to be confirmed as prime minister.

The oblique but still surprising words of Zubkov, a little-known technocrat but long-time intimate of Putin's, will only bolster theories that Putin plans to continue running the country from behind the scenes while planning his own return in 2012. Under the constitution, Putin is only barred from serving two consecutive terms.

Putin nominated Zubkov, chairman of a state body that investigates money laundering, Wednesday to the prime minister's position, scrambling predictions about who will be the Kremlin-backed candidate in next March's presidential election.

For months, Sergei Ivanov and Dmitri Medvedev, who are both first deputy prime ministers, have been widely regarded among Russians as the leading figures competing for Putin's nod for president. Promotion to prime minister for one of the men would have been seen as a signal of Putin's support and almost certain presidential election victory.

In keeping with the Kremlin's largely hidden process of decision-making, Putin offered little explanation Wednesday for the reshuffle. "We all need to think about how to build up the structure of power and governance so they are better suited to the preelection period," he said in televised remarks.

Hinting that Zubkov may be around for a while, he added that "we need to prepare the country" for the period that will follow parliamentary elections scheduled for December and next spring's presidential vote.

The outgoing Fradkov, a colorless technocrat who has loyally followed Kremlin orders since becoming prime minister in 2004, said he was resigning so that Putin would have a free hand to create a new government in the run-up to the elections.

Putin was appointed prime minister in 1999, six months before President Boris Yeltsin resigned on New Year's Eve, catapulting his young charge into the presidency. Putin is required under the Russian constitution to step down after serving two consecutive terms, but would be free to run again after a successor served as president.

Many analysts here had expected Putin to follow the same scenario as Yeltsin and appoint a prime minister who could then burnish his presidential credentials in a compressed time frame that allowed little opportunity for damaging political crises or blunders.

Zubkov, however, was not on anyone's radar. His promotion baffled many analysts. Some found it hard to believe that he could eventually become president.

"Really it's a very weird appointment," said Yevgeny Volk, head of the Heritage Foundation in Moscow. "Zubkov doesn't seem like a candidate fit for the presidency. This may be to divert the public from the real candidate for the moment. But Kremlin watchers now have a lot of food for thought."