Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said today it was too early to announce whether he will run in next year's presidential election but promised a decision soon.
Mr Medvedev and prime minister Vladimir Putin, the mentor who steered him into the Kremlin in 2008, have suggested one of them will run for a six-year term as president next March but have kept the nation guessing with less than a year remaining.
"To announce such a decision, formats different from a press conference should be chosen," Mr Medvedev told a news conference in Skolkovo, an area just outside Moscow which is intended to become a high-technology business hub.
"When I feel like making this announcement, I will make it," he told an audience of about 800 journalists at his biggest news conference since becoming president. An announcement was "quite close", he said.
A majority of Russians still regard Mr Putin as the country's paramount leader. President from 2000-2008, he has sought this month to broaden his political backing before a parliamentary election in December and the March 2012 vote.
Mr Medvedev (45) has presented himself as an alternative to the 58-year-old former KGB spy and the two men have exchanged public jibes in campaign-like appearances, fuelling speculation that Mr Medvedev is positioning himself to seek a second term.
Such talk has also prompted suggestions that Mr Medvedev might dismiss Mr Putin's government.
Mr Medvedev declined direct comment on this but, in remarks that could be interpreted as a swipe at Mr Putin, said: "No one comes to power forever. People who have such illusions usually end badly."
"As you know, I often criticise the government but I think the government is working as a harmonious organism, and that's why it wouldn't be right to pull individual links out of the chain," he said.
Mr Medvedev was expected to use the widely televised news conference to show he is not just Mr Putin's "yes man" and could be a viable candidate for the presidency."
Skolkovo is at the heart of Mr Medvedev's plans to diversify Russia's $1.5 trillion economy away from dependence on the export of natural resources by boosting the share of high-technology products.
Mr Medvedev has used talk of modernisation to portray himself as a candidate of change who can offer a more modern view of Russian development than that proposed by Putin, who underlines the need for stability and wariness about foreign influence.
Reuters