Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed yesterday that he would not try to run again for the presidency, but stated he would retain influence over Russia even after leaving office in 2008 as required by the constitution.

Speaking during a nationally televised question-and-answer session, the Russian leader also vowed that the perpetrators of the recent high-profile killings of a Central Bank regulator and well-known investigative journalist would be brought to justice. He also hailed the oil-rich country's newly-found financial muscle that has sent the economy soaring at an impressive rate of around 7 percent annually.

"In all, I can say we are satisfied with how the country is developing, including the economy," he said.

Sounding by turns like a populist politician, lecturing professor and concerned father, the Russian leader fielded 56 wide-ranging questions or complaints lodged by phone, e-mail, text message and video link from around the country and from the Black Sea Fleet, based in Ukraine

Questions in Putin's fifth such session since coming to office in 2000 ranged from low salaries and pensions to policies toward Russia's neighbors to the 2008 presidential elections.

Dressed in a dark blue suit and striped tie and seated at a rectangular table, Putin jotted down notes, carefully referred to questioners by name, and showed off his mastery of facts by reciting arcane statistics such as the length of a highway or the level of property taxes that should be paid on a country house.

The immensely popular Putin is constitutionally barred from running for a third consecutive term, but supporters and various regional groups, including in Chechnya, have called for a referendum on amending the country's laws to allow him to stay in power.

"Even having lost the powers and the levers of presidential power and not tailoring the basic law according to my personal interests, I will manage to retain the most important thing that a person involved in politics must cherish your trust," he said. "And using that, you and I will be able to exert influence on the life of our country and guarantee its development."

"Despite the fact that I like my job, the constitution doesn't allow me to run a third time in a row," Putin told a questioner.

There has been much speculation about a successor, and two potential candidates are currently front-runners: the dour, hawkish defense minister, Sergey Ivanov; and a technocratic deputy prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev.

After yesterday's three-hour question-and-answer session, Russian news agencies quoted Putin as telling reporters that he was not yet prepared to name his successor.

"The time will come and I will tell you about it through the media,” the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted him as saying.

One questioner asked about the wave of high-profile contract killings in Russia. The murders of top Central Bank regulator Andrei Kozlov and investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya this fall raised that Russia was sinking into violence once more as in the 1990s, when business disputes were commonly solved through gangland style shootings and bombings.

Putin said such killings had declined in recent years and asserted that authorities were becoming more successful in cracking down on financial crimes.

"The obligation of the state is to bring any such investigation to the end this concerns the killings of mass media representatives and killings in the economic sphere," Putin said.

Correspondents from state-run television networks chose questioners from among small crowds in towns and cities around the vast country.

It was impossible to tell whether the questions were arranged in advance or questioners coached, but during past sessions, critics alleged that authorities and state TV reporters selected audiences allowed to go live with Putin and screened questions. Furthermore, none of the questions posed yesterday could be perceived as hostile, negative or even challenging.

(China Daily October 26, 2006)