Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday the only way to address problems in Russia was via power stability.
On September 24, President Dmitry Medvedev backed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, former president, for Russia’s next president. Both officials said Medvedev was the most likely premier if Putin were elected in March 2012.
“I will tell you in all my sincerity that [the only instrument to continue the course is] to keep the power and continue working,” Medvedev, who leads the election list of the ruling United Russia party, said at a meeting with his supporters ahead of the December parliamentary elections.
Medvedev praised the progress of the past few years in handling Russia’s most acute problems such as dependence on energy exports, corruption, and red tape.
When he came to power in 2008, Medvedev enjoyed vast support from Putin. Medvedev and Putin met in the 1990s when they worked together in the St. Petersburg mayor’s office.
The president described the meeting with his supporters as a key event in the United Russia’s election campaign.
Medvedev, 46, whose first term expires in March said he was not going to quit politics as he had not realized his potential in full yet.
“I feel my responsibility in this respect. This is why I have decided to stay in politics, continue working and do practical things,” he said.
He also said that when he started working as a government official, he had no illusions, but he had a ‘feeling of a successful person’, practicing lawyer and a scientist in the field of law.
“I thought I knew very well how the state machine worked. But I’ve made a mistake. Everything turned out to be more complicated and in some of the issues even more frightening,” Medvedev added.