Russian President Vladimir Putin wants a strong successor because a weak leader would destabilize the country, said the former chairman of the opposition Christian-Democratic Movement (KDH), Jan Carnogursky. "[President] Putin wants Russia to retain its stability, a stability to which he himself brought the country. For this reason he is refusing considerations of a weak future president whom he would have to stand behind. If Putin's successor were weak, he would ruin Putin's work of having brought stability to Russia," said Mr. Carnogursky for SITA on Monday, after he met with President Putin as a member of the Valdai International Discussion Club, which gathered in Russia for its fourth session devoted to the issues of Russian identity last week.
The Valdai Club unites forty leading political scientists, Russian experts, and heads of major foreign policy and research centers. Mr. Carnogursky is the only club member from our part of Europe.
According to Mr. Carnogursky, it is not yet known whether President Putin will endorse a candidate in the next Russian presidential elections in 2008. "It is obvious that the one he supports would win," Mr. Carnogursky added. He continued that Mr. Putin, even after his term in office expires, will continue to represent a moral authority that will further guarantee Russia's development.
Mr. Carnogursky also said that the club's meeting uncovered several alternatives that will shape Russian politics after the next parliamentary elections. According to Mr. Carnogursky, the meeting also revealed Russia's political confidence, "which stems from the West now facing economic, political, and power depression. Russia, at the intersection of civilizations in cooperation with China and India, is on the rise," he stated. Mr. Carnogursky also pointed out that the West has been dragged into two military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, where it has been losing and doesn't know how to get out. "If the United States attacked Iran, it would be enough if Iran sank its ships, which would disable import of crude oil to Europe through the Persian Gulf, which would threaten the West, but not Russia or China," concluded Mr. Carnogursky.
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