Putin warns West his successor to be just as tough

RUSSIA: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday warned the West against expecting an easier ride under his successor Dmitry Medvedev.

"Dmitry Medvedev will be free to demonstrate his liberal views," Putin said after talks at his Novo Ogaryevo residence outside Moscow with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"But he is no less a Russian nationalist, in the good sense of the word, than I am, and I do not think that with him the partnership will be more simple."

Putin was speaking at a press conference just before Merkel went to a separate meeting with Medvedev, the first between a Western leader and the new president-elect since his controversial election March 2.

Merkel did not respond until seeing Medvedev.

"President Putin just told me that it won't be easier with you than with him," she said in televised comments. "But I restrained myself and didn't say that I hope that at least relations won't be more complicated."

Medvedev answered with a chuckle that he expected to continue "the frankness and friendship... of your relations with President Putin".

Putin also lashed out at the Western military alliance NATO, accusing it of trying to become a "substitute for the United Nations."

On another sensitive question - the imprisonment of businessman and Kremlin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky - Putin would not comment on the likelihood of a pardon.

"Questions of pardoning are in the hands of the head of state," he said.

Merkel came to Russia to take the political temperature ahead of Putin handing over to Medvedev, who has crafted a more liberal image than his ex-KGB mentor.

But Putin says he will become prime minister after he steps down in May, leading analysts to predict that real power may lie with the outgoing president, not his inexperienced replacement.

Moscow, Sunday, AFP