PUTIN SAYS WILL NOT CHANGE STATUTE TO CLING TO POWER
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is expected to be re-elected for a fourth term in an upcoming ballot, said on Saturday he had no plans to change the constitution to stay in the Kremlin beyond 2024.
Asked by the US television network NBC whether he would follow in the footsteps of China’s Xi Jinping, who is eyeing a limitless tenure, Putin insisted he had no such intentions. “I never changed the constitution, I did not do it to suit myself and I have no such plans to do so today,” he said, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin on Saturday.
Critics accuse Putin, who was first elected president in 2000 and is running for a fourth term in March 18 polls, of harbouring ambitions to stay in power indefinitely.
ON U.S. ELECTION MEDDLING: I DON’T CARE
Putin said he doesn’t care about alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election because the actions weren’t connected to his government.
He also suggested that some of the 13 Russian nationals indicted by the United States may not be ethnically Russian. “Maybe they are not even Russians, but Ukrainians, Tatars or Jews, but with Russian citizenship, which should also be checked,” he said.
Putin responded brusquely when interviewer Megyn Kelly asked if he condoned the interference that was alleged in last month’s US indictment by special counsel Robert Mueller.
“It’s all the same to me. To me it absolutely makes no difference because they do not represent the government,” Putin answered, according to the transcript.
Putin said Russia has neither the tools nor the will to meddle in elections.
He repeatedly complained during the interview that Washington has brushed off Russian initiatives to work together on cybersecurity issues.