Putin will not seek third term

President Vladimir Putin said today that he will not seek a third term in 2008, but vowed not to allow “destabilisation” in Russia in the weeks following the election, leaving the door open for drastic action in the event of a crisis.

In an interview with Dutch media on the eve of a visit to the Netherlands, Putin reiterated that he opposes changing Russia’s constitution to prolong his time in power – a possibility that has been widely discussed because his popularity and control over parliament.

But Putin said that the 2008 presidential election will be a “serious, difficult test for Russia” and stressed that full power and responsibility for the fate of the country will remain in his hands until the new president is sworn in.

“I will not allow any destabilisation in Russia, in the interests of the … peoples of the Russian Federation,” Putin said in the interview with Nederland 1 television and the financial newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

Putin did not elaborate, but the statement raised the possibility that Putin could take unpredictable measures in the name of stability in the event of unrest or a political crisis in the weeks between the election and the new president’s inauguration.