(Image source: RIA Novosti)

BY TRACY PFEIFFER

ANCHOR ANTHONY MARTINEZ

You're watching multisource world video news analysis from Newsy.
 

Putin for 2012. That’s the word out of Russia after the convention for the ruling United Russia party.

Current president Dmitri Medvedev broke the news. Russia’s RT has his statement.

DMITRI MEDVEDEV, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA: “I believe it would be right for congress to support the candidacy of Vladimir Putin in the presidential election. (applause) This applause means I don’t have to explain what kind of experience and authority Vladimir Putin has.”

Medvedev -- who France 24 calls a Putin loyalist -- assumed the presidency after Putin used up his allotted two consecutive terms in 2008.

The former president has served as prime minister for the past four years, though many analysts suspect he was pulling the strings of Medvedev’s presidency. (Video: euronews)

Many analysts have said of the announcement -- surprise surprise -- but a correspondent for Al Jazeera notes, no one was sure it would go quite this smoothly.

"People presumed that Putin would remain a senior figure in politics and perhaps in the government. But no one assumed that Putin would return to presidency potentially without a fight. ...What today's news shows is that Medvedev is behind Putin, and that both of them have a master plan that they want to put into action."

But Bloomberg-BusinessWeek spoke with an independent Moscow-based political analyst who says: the smooth transition might actually be a sign of trouble in the tandem power arrangement.

“This is a signal that Putin expects economic and social problems in the country and he can’t rely on relations of trust within the tandem... Putin has decided that with six years to get through, I’ll have to deal with it myself.”

As for what Putin will do when he gets back to the presidency -- a writer for France 24 says, it’ll probably be a familiar tune.

ANDREW OSBORN, FRANCE 24: “Mr. Medvedev was Mr. Putin’s man, he was really carrying out his program, and Russia is really at a point in its history where it’s all about stabilization, it’s all about rebuilding, it’s all about stability and essentially the task now for Russia is that it has all this ancient and aging Soviet infrastructure to replace and that’s what Mr. Putin is going to focus on. I think the key word is modernization.”

And while many reports are treating Putin’s next term as a done deal, a correspondent for Russia’s RT says: The United Russia party still has a long way to go.

ANISSA ANOUAI, RT: “Their popularity is not as high as it was, certainly. They do share and have great support from a lot of the -- a percentage of the Russian population, but it’s certainly not what it was, and the party understands that. I think any expert will tell you that, and perhaps that’s why we’re hearing this decision today, because there’s so much to do before those elections. …It’s not going to be as easy as most of the West is going to be predicting.”

If Putin wins the presidency in 2012, new constitutional rules mean he could serve two consecutive six-year terms -- possibly putting him in office until 2024.


Transcript by Newsy.