Putin Supports Longer Term for Successor to Presidency

MOSCOW, June 4 — President Vladimir V. Putin said that Russia could benefit from longer presidential terms, though he again ruled out the possibility that he would remain in office after the expiration of his second term next year, according to remarks published Monday.

The remarks, made in an interview with a group of invited journalists from Group of 8 countries at his residence outside Moscow on Friday, further clouded the situation around Mr. Putin’s post-presidential plans and his possible successor. The Kremlin published the text of the interview at kremlin.ru/eng/.

Mr. Putin suggested increasing the length of presidential terms to five or seven years from four, though he gave no indication that a change in the rules would affect his often repeated intentions to step down after presidential elections in March 2008.

“I definitely will work,” Mr. Putin said, referring to his postelection plans. “Where and in what capacity, I cannot say.” He added that he had some “definite ideas” in mind.

Mr. Putin’s continued obliqueness regarding his future has fueled speculation that he could hold on to power by changing the Constitution; a change in the length of presidential terms could provide a pretext for doing so.

In his remarks, he echoed Sergei Mironov, the chairman of the upper house of Parliament, who, in addition to calling for extended presidential terms last March, has been one of the strongest supporters of an initiative to extend Mr. Putin’s presidency beyond its legal end.

Mr. Mironov, who also leads Just Russia, a pro-Kremlin party, recently backed off his effort to keep Mr. Putin in office, though public support for the initiative, as well for Mr. Putin, remains high.

In his remarks on Friday, Mr. Putin criticized the democratic credentials of Europe and the United States and extolled his own virtues as a democrat. “Let’s see what is happening in North America — sheer horror: torture, the homeless, Guantánamo, detention without a trial or investigation,” he said.

“Let’s look at what’s going on in Europe: harsh treatment of demonstrators, the use of rubber bullets, tear gas in one capital, and in another capital, the murder of demonstrators on the streets.”