(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-11 07:53

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday expressed support for First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as his successor - a move likely to ensure the latter's election.

First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev speaks during a meeting with school teachers in the town of Vsevolzhsk, outside St.Petersburg, Russia, in this June 14, 2006, file photo. [Agencies]

There has been intense speculation for months on whom Putin saw as his likely successor in the March 2 voting, along with the wider question of what Putin himself will do once he steps down.

He is banned by the constitution from seeking a third consecutive term in office.

The Russian president made the statement in a meeting with representatives of the United Russia party - which is his power base and dominates parliament - and three other parties. The parties told Putin they all supported Medvedev.

"I completely and fully support this proposal," Putin said, according to footage shown on state television.

Putin had long been seen as trying to choose between Medvedev, a 42-year-old business-oriented lawyer and board chairman of state natural gas giant Gazprom, and Sergei Ivanov, another first deputy premier.

"Medvedev is not an extremist. He is not known for any kind of harsh views on politics, and apparently Medvedev better suits Putin's view of how to achieve continuity," said Lilia Shevtsova, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Putin said that electing Medvedev would pave the way for a government "that will carry out the course that has brought results for all of the past eight years".

The Russian stock market surged on the news, led by Gazprom, whose shares jumped 1.6 percent within a few minutes. The market was also apparently boosted by the end of the long uncertainty over whom Putin would designate as successor.

Both Medvedev and Putin worked under St. Petersburg's reformist mayor Anatoly Sobchak in the early 1990s.

After Putin became prime minister in 1999, he brought Medvedev to Moscow to become deputy chief of staff of the Cabinet. He then moved up to become deputy chief of staff for the president, became Gazprom board head in 2002 and full presidential chief of staff in 2003.

In 2005, Putin named him a first deputy prime minister and almost immediately Medvedev began to receive extensive television coverage - even more than that accorded to the prime minister.

The disproportionately lavish coverage raised speculation that Putin even then saw Medvedev as his preferred successor.

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