MOSCOW (AFP) — President Vladimir Putin's shock announcement that he could remain in power as prime minister encouraged Russian investors Tuesday but prompted charges of a concentration of power from the rest of Europe.
The benchmark RTS Moscow stock market index soared to a new all-time record high within a few hours of the start of trading, rising 2.35 percent from Monday's close.
Front pages of national newspapers in Russia were devoted to Putin's bombshell announcement on Monday that he would run for a seat in parliament and that becoming prime minister was a "completely realistic idea".
The coverage in Russia however was mainly factual and neutral or celebratory in tone, in stark contrast to criticism from officials and media abroad, where Putin again took the international community off guard.
While the US administration and the European Union said Putin's announcement was an internal affair, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington is concerned about the "concentration of power" in Russia.
The Russian leader brought hundreds of delegates to their feet in a roar of approval when he announced at the annual congress of the ruling United Russia party that he would head its list in December 2 national parliamentary elections.
Putin "has nullified the main intrigue of the presidential election campaign," the centrist daily Vremya Novostei said, referring to speculation on how the popular president would designate as his preferred successor in the Kremlin.
"It's not important who will occupy the presidential post if the parliament and the government are controlled by the country's current leader," the paper said.
That sentiment was echoed by pro-Kremlin national daily Izvestia, which noted dryly that "Putin Has Become His Own Successor" and said it mattered little who replaced him as president so long as the 54-year-old leader held any government post.
Outright criticism in Russia was hard to come by, with even some of Putin's most vocal critics taking a relatively cautious stance.
"The time when the president was the father of the nation with no connection at all to the struggle of politics is gone for good," Garry Kasparov, the chess legend and opposition figure who has said he would challenge Putin for the presidency, commented in a radio interview late Monday.
While political analysts groped for a coherent response to Putin's announcement, Russian officials and market experts described the move as good for investors.
"This is a very important decision for business because it guarantees stability and the continuation of today's direction regardless of who becomes president in 2008," said Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
Brokers almost uniformly also took that view.
"In the short-term, these developments should be taken positively by the market, reconfirming that the Kremlin intends to secure the continuity of current economic policies in Russia for the period after the elections," investment bank Renaissance Capital said in a note to investors.
In Washington, the White House said that the prospect that Putin might become prime minister is "ultimately a matter for the people of Russia to decide."
Spokeswoman Dana Perino said "We will be paying very close attention to the upcoming elections in Russia and we urge them to conduct them in a manner that is free, fair and democratic."
But Rice said in an interview with the New York Post daily: "I think the concerning thing about Russia right now is just the concentration of power in the Kremlin; leave aside the presidency itself."
It was not clear whether she spoke before or after Putin's announcement.
European newspapers took a more critical stance toward Putin.
In an editorial, The Times of London asked: "Has Vladimir Putin just pulled the plug on Russian democracy?", noting that his announcement indicated that he intended to "simply switch titles" in order to remain in politics "and continue his authoritiarian rule."
Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper said Putin would now be looking for a "puppet" to take over his position as president in an election in March.
The German daily Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung predicted that more surprises from the Russian leader lay ahead. "The Putin era is far from finished -- it has only just begun."
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