Head of the Russian Nanotechnology Cooperation (RusNano) and influential politician Anatoly Chubais said on Tuesday that incumbent President Dmitry Medvedev was likely to run for a second term in the 2012 presidential elections.
Medvedev has ruled in tandem with his predecessor and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin since 2008. The two leaders have said that only one of them will run in the next elections, and that a decision will be made on the matter in the near future.
Putin, generally considered the more powerful of the two, is tipped as the most likely candidate. Despite soaring approval ratings, the current premier gave up the presidential post after ruling for two consecutive terms, the most allowed by the Russian constitution.
"The scenario [of Putin running] seems less likely to me," Chubais said in an interview with the Sobesednik weekly, adding that his intuition rarely fails him.
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti)
