Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that he and President Dmitry Medvedev may both run in the 2012 presidential election.

“Neither Dmitry Anatolyevich (Medvedev), nor I can rule out that each of us may run in the race,” Putin was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

Putin said that a final decision would be made after judging the real current economic, political and social situation on the eve of elections.

Putin stressed that there is still one year to election day and that “all this fuss around the elections does not help the normal work (of Kremlin).”

The prime minister said that a decision was to be announced too early, “half of the (presidential) administration and over half of the government would stop working expecting some changes.”

Medvedev said Tuesday that he did not rule out the possibility of running for re-election and that decision would be taken “pretty shortly”.

Medvedev’s term in office ends in May 2012. He and Putin both repeatedly say they are not going to compete for the Kremlin but will agree in private on the matter.

Source: Xinhua