Putin talks to nation about auto industry, a free press and babies

Oct 25, 2006, 14:11 GMT

Moscow - Russia's President Vladimir Putin took to the airwaves Wednesday, saying he would remain influential after leaving office and that he had no plans to annex Georgia's breakaway regions.

Appearing on national television in an annual question-and-answer session between Putin and ordinary Russians who turn out in crowds in various cities, the Russian leader touched on issues ranging from his country's auto industry to birthrates to recent high-profile murders.

In what has become a common occurrence, the hugely popular president was asked what would happen to the country after his second - and, under the Russian Constitution, final - term runs out in 2008.

'I enjoy my work, but the Constitution doesn't give me the power' to run for a third consecutive term, he said during the programme, televised on Channel One and the channel Rossiya.

But, Putin added, he hopes to leave office with 'the most important thing - the trust of the people' and continue to 'influence the life of the country.'

Without specifying how he would retain his influence, the president said his stepping down - in spite of a chorus of requests to change the Constitution via referendum to give Putin a third term - was necessary for the development of democracy in Russia.

Another of Russia's 'sharpest problems,' Putin said, is corruption. He discouraged Russians from paying bribes to the country's notorious traffic police, saying an 'entire system of measures' should discourage corruption, endemic in the country.

One such measure, he noted, was a free press. Recent media attention given to a string of high-profile killings is 'absolutely correct,' and, the Russian leader urged, the government must get to the bottom of the killings.

Anna Politkovskaya, a well-known journalist and strident critic of government policies in the war-torn republic of Chechnya, was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building earlier this month.

Putin remained silent for 48 hours after her death, and when the issue was raised in Dresden, Germany, he said that Politkovskaya's death did more harm to the country than her work had, angering many.

But while Politkovskaya's murder and that of Central Bank Deputy Chairman Andrei Kozlov have caused fears Russia is returning to the 1990s, when contract killings were rampant, Putin said the number of such crimes was on the decline.

The Russian president also addressed North Korea's nuclear test, urging a resumption of talks with the Stalinist state and warning against painting it into a corner.

But Moscow's biggest foreign policy headaches come from former Soviet partners Ukraine and Georgia.

In the programme's first half, cameras turned to a group that had gathered in Sebastopol, in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, a traditionally Russian area handed to Ukraine in the 1960s by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

'Crimea is a special place for us. If Ukraine turns to us for help, we'll work with her,' he said.

Putin added that talks were possible on extending the Russian Navy's lease on its controversial home in Sebastopol past 2017. Putin promised the forces would never interfere in Ukraine's internal politics.

'To say Russia has imperial tendencies, that it wants a resurrection of the Soviet Union, is groundless,' he said.

Regarding the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which have both asked to join Russia, Putin said Russia was 'big enough' and didn't plan to add to its territory.

Calling the Georgian people one of the closest to Russia, he said he hoped for a peaceful resolution to tensions caused by Georgia's arrest of four Russian military officers on espionage charges.

In response to the arrests, Russia has cut diplomatic, transport and mail links to its neighbour to the south, in addition to deporting nearly 1,000 Georgians, including over 60 this week.

'Georgians have made a huge, at times invaluable, contribution to Russia,' Putin said.

Speaking to viewers from locations ranging from Kondopoga, the northwestern town lit with race riots last month, to Nakhodka on the Pacific Ocean to the Caucasus republic of Dagestan, questions touched on the economy and alleged comments about an Israeli rape scandal.

Whether the questions are staged or not is unclear. Media reported that some 2.3 million Russians sent Putin e-mailed questions, and he answered a sampling of them.

After being asked by Dagestanis about improving the number of jobs in the southern republic, Putin broached plans outlined yesterday to repatriate Russians living abroad in an effort to stimulate the country's work force.

Russia is losing about 700,000 people each year, its population dropping to 142 million this year, from 149 million in 1992.

But, the president said, the 'super mission' for the next 10 years would be diversifying Russia's economy, currently based on natural resources extraction. One step would be increasing auto production to 2 million vehicles per year, double today's figure of 1 million.

Cutting a bit closer to home, a woman asked Putin about comments he allegedly made last week congratulating Israeli President Moshe Katsav on accusations that he raped 10 women.

Voicing his opinion that the Israeli charges were politically motivated, Putin, a former KGB agent, said reporters had taken a joke he was making about the situation out of context.

'Regarding the press, I can say that when I worked in a different organization we used to kid around that they were sent to watch, but instead they eavesdrop. It's not pretty.'