Putin defends bid for presidency

The Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, defended his decision to stand in next year's presidential election yesterday saying he intends to serve his country one more time.
He denied it was a quest to retain personal power, insisting that he needed longer to raise living standards and make Russia stronger.
He is the overwhelming favourite to return to the position he first held 12 years ago.
But critics say his political influence is an increasingly destructive force.
However, at a dinner in Moscow with foreign specialists on Russia, Putin vigorously defended himself.
The annual face-to-face meeting with Putin granted to foreign experts invited by the Russian government to discuss the state of Russian politics as part of the so-called Valdai club.
The incumbent Russian prime Minister energetically defended the plan to swap places with Dmitry Medvedev. It was not about hanging on to power, he said, and all about the weak state of Russia's institutions.
"We'd like there to be more internal resilience, so we can hand over power with a politically mature system. But it's not easy and it takes time," he said.
"We weren't dissembling, Medvedev and I, when four years ago we said what happens next will depend on what the political situation is.
"Both of us, we're not after personal power in this, we just want to build a stronger system."
Putin stressed on stability of Russia as the top priority - the means to protect the country from itself and from foreign enemies and the key to future prosperity
Some say a bonanza in oil prices is part of that equation. Putin prefers to see it as the result of work by a strong and skilled leader who drives change from above - like, for example, his good friend Silvio Berlusconi of Italy.