Putin not to run for third term: Russian EC

Moscow, Apr 9: Russian Central Election Commission chairman Vladimir Churov explicitly stated today that President Vladimir Putin will not run for a third presidential term.

''I believe the third term is impossible for him. It is a great burden, a great job that he has been doing for these eight years. It makes one think of some change of occupation. At least I believe what Vladimir Putin says,'' Mr Churov said in an interview with leading business daily Kommersant published today.

Mr Churov was elected Central Election Commission chairman last month after Mr Putin dismissed Alexander Veshnyakov ahead of parliamentary elections in December and presidential polls early next year.

''All these years, he has clearly adhered to one position and there are no reasons to doubt it,'' he said, adding that the President ''has not deceived anyone, therefore I do not think one should be talking of him running a third term.'' Under the present Constitution, Mr Putin will have to step down after new presidential elections are declared. He has repeatedly denied speculations by the Russian media and political circles that he will run for a third term.

''We proceed from the President's position that it is pointless to change the Constitution to extend the presidential term or the number of terms,'' Mr Putin's spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said on March 30, commenting on a proposal by newly-elected speaker of the Federal Council, the upper house, Sergei Mironov to amend the Constitution that might allow the President to stay in power. Mr Mirovnov had also proposed the extension of the current four-year term to five, or even seven years.

UNI