IN AN electric four-hour solo performance on live television, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he will think about whether to reclaim the presidency – one of the strongest signals yet that he may run again for Russia’s top office in 2012.

The top prosecutor in the Russian republic of Chechnya said today that a criminal investigation has been opened into the improper storage of radioactive materials by a state-owned company in the capital, Grozny.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will deliver an annual state of the nation address on Monday, the Kremlin announced, as the country increasingly looks ahead to 2008 presidential elections in which Putin is constitutionally banned from standing.

Infighting among top political leaders, rattled by popular uprisings in three ex-Soviet republics, may cause a rift that puts Russia at risk of breaking up, President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff warned.