December 18, 2007	Tuesday	Zilhaj 7, 1428

MOSCOW, Dec 17: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he was ready to become prime minister if his close ally Dmitry Medvedev succeeds him, giving Putin a way to keep a grip on power after he leaves the Kremlin.

A 42-year-old lawyer with no political base of his own, Medvedev is virtually certain to win next March’s presidential election since most Russians will vote for whoever the highly popular Putin endorses.

“If Russian citizens express their confidence in Dmitry Medvedev and elect him as the country’s president, I will be ready to head the government,” Putin told a congress of his United Russia party held near Moscow’s Red Square.

“(We) shouldn’t be ashamed or afraid of transferring the key powers of the country, the destiny of Russia to the hands of such a man,” Putin added in his speech.

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Medvedev, 42, was later adopted by the congress as United Russia’s presidential candidate. Delegates voted 478-1 in a sober, Soviet-style ceremony held without debate.

In his brief acceptance speech, Medvedev listed priorities such as strengthening Russia’s position in the world, preserving the Russian nation, looking after the young and the old.

“All this is in Vladimir Putin’s strategy. I will be guided by this strategy, if I am elected president,” Medvedev said. “But carrying out an idea can only be successful with the participation of its author. I have no doubt that in the future Vladimir (Putin) will use all his resources, all his influence in Russia and abroad for the benefit of Russia.”

Putin walked into the congress hall side by side with Medvedev to applause from the serried ranks of dark-suited delegates. Both men wore dark suits with white shirts and ties and stood to attention as participants sang the national anthem.

MISSILES MAY TARGET US: The commander of Russia’s strategic missile forces said on Monday that he would not rule out aiming intercontinental missiles at a planned US missile-defence shield in central Europe, Interfax reported.

If the US shield is seen to threaten Russia’s nuclear capability, “I do not exclude ... the missile defence shield sites in Poland and the Czech Republic being chosen as targets for some of our intercontinental ballistic missiles,” General Nikolai Solovtsov was quoted as saying by the news agency.

WEST WARNED OVER KOSOVO: Russia warned on Monday that Kosovo could slip into “uncontrollable crisis,” ahead of a UN Security Council showdown over the Serbian province’s western-backed push for independence.

“The situation is threatening to slip towards an uncontrollable crisis if international law is not upheld” and any decision on the future status of Kosovo must only be taken within the UN Security Council, the ministry said.—Agencies