Russia's Medvedev promises decision soon on 2012

SKOLKOVO, Russia (Reuters) - President Dmitry Medvedev kept Russia guessing Wednesday about whether he or Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will run in next year's presidential election but promised a decision soon.

In a long news conference broadcast live to the nation, Medvedev sought to show he and Putin remain allies. But he said they did not agree on everything, a remark that could signal his ambitions to be seen as a viable candidate for a second term.

In other comments that appeared intended to underline his personal strengths, Medvedev said Russia would have to take counter measures if no deal was reached on cooperation with Washington over a missile defence system.

Medvedev and 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 not said which will do so with less than a year remaining.

"To announce such a decision, formats different from a press conference should be chosen," Medvedev, looking relaxed, told the 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 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.

POLITICAL DIFFERENCES?

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 Medvedev is positioning himself to seek a second term.

Medvedev declined direct comment on suggestions that he might dismiss Putin's government but, in a response to a separate question, said: "No one comes to power forever. People who have such illusions usually end badly."

Asked about his relationship with Putin, he said they knew each other well, were like-minded and close in strategy.

"But that doesn't mean we agree on everything. It must not be that way, that would be very boring and simply wrong," he said

His comments are likely to be seen as underlining the closeness of their relationship but also differentiating him enough from Putin to show he is not just his "yes man."

Medvedev reiterated calls for modernisation. He portrays himself as a candidate of change with a more modern view of Russian development than that proposed by Putin, who underlines the need for stability and wariness about foreign influence.

He told the news conference that modernisation, which aims to diversify the country's economy away from reliance on oil and gas revenues, can be done faster than the pace set by Putin.

Medvedev called for cooperation with the United States over missile defence, but said Russia would be forced to increase its strike capabilities if Washington does not take into account Russian concerns over a planned missile shield for Europe.

"It would be a very bad scenario. This would be a scenario that would throw us back into the Cold War era," he said.

(Reporting by Moscow bureau; writing by Timothy Heritage)

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