Putin Urged To Lead Pro-Kremlin Party
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MOSCOW — The outgoing Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who is to be approved as prime minister May 8 by lawmakers, should head the pro-Kremlin United Russia Party, its current leader said.
Boris Gryzlov, who is also speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said he’ll publicly propose Mr. Putin as his successor at a party congress on April 14.
“I, like all my colleagues, will suggest to him that he head the party,” Mr. Gryzlov told reporters yesterday in Moscow in comments broadcast live on state television channel Vesti-24. “That would be the ideal choice.”
Mr. Putin, who steps down May 7 after eight years, is handing the presidency to the first deputy prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev. The chairmanship of United Russia, which has a two- thirds majority in the Duma, would give Mr. Putin “additional influence” over Mr. Medvedev, Alexei Mukhin, the director of the Moscow-based Center for Political Information, said.
