Putin does not rule out another run for Russian presidency

“I’ll think about it,’’ Putin said.

Putin, the former president, current prime minister, and effective paramount leader, certainly did not act like a man in the twilight of his political career. He offered up a virtuoso performance at his annual question-and-answer session, seeking to showcase his status as Russia’s dominant leader and his concern for the average Russian.

Putin, 57, recited statistics and other details from memory on many subjects. The nationally televised session was four hours and nearly 90 questions long, yet it seemed as if Putin would not have minded had it gone longer.

Asked at one point whether it was time to relax after many years of government service, he grinned and said, “Don’t hold your breath.’’

Putin served two terms as president, beginning in 2000, but could not run for a third consecutive one because of term limits. He endorsed his close aide, Dmitri A. Medvedev, who was elected in 2008 and named Putin as prime minister.

Despite an economy weakened by the financial crisis, Putin remains popular, and were he to run for president again in 2012, he could conceivably serve another two terms, through early 2024, when he would be 71.

The current term is four years, but last year, Medvedev pushed through a constitutional change that lengthened it to six years. That move was widely interpreted as an effort by Putin to ensure that he could continue wielding power for many years.

Yesterday, Putin said: “Depending on how the situation turns out with the economy, and in the social sphere, appropriate action will be taken regarding the election campaign of 2012. But it is now only 2009.’’

Even so, Putin repeatedly detailed his success at stabilizing the economy and rapidly reacting to problems across the nation, from disasters to small personal troubles.

“People believe in the positive future of this country,’’ he said.

To some extent, events yesterday underscored the unusual arrangement between Putin and Medvedev, who rule in what they describe as a tandem leadership. While Medvedev nominally holds the higher office, he has not held such question-and-answer sessions, and while Putin was holding court, Medvedev spent yesterday on a trip to Italy.

Asked there whether he would run for reelection, Medvedev said he would decide with Putin.

“As we both have said, we are close to one another, we understand one another, and we work together,’’ Medvedev said. “We will be able to agree in some way without elbowing each other aside.’’

The remarks by both men underscore how they have tended to provide relatively coy assessments of what lies ahead, recognizing that the instant one says he will not run in 2012, he becomes a lame duck.

The political class here regularly searches for a schism between the two, but evidence has been hard to come by. At the same time, Putin and Medvedev have developed somewhat different agendas, as was clear from Putin’s answers at the Moscow forum yesterday.

Putin skirted or ignored issues that have been Medvedev’s focus, including corruption, economic innovation, and human rights. Just last month, Medvedev delivered a state of the nation speech in which he said that if Russia did not modernize, it would fall far behind other leading countries.

In October, Medvedev denounced Stalin. Putin indicated yesterday that he had a more nuanced view, saying that Stalin committed horrible crimes but also won World War II and industrialized the Soviet Union.

“Any historical events should be analyzed in their entirety,’’ Putin said.

Medvedev has spoken out in favor of liberalizing the political system, while Putin, criticized by opposition parties as an autocrat, has expressed satisfaction with the current structure.