Russian business urged to pick sides before vote

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday he wanted a second Kremlin term but it was still early to say whether he would run for re-election in 2012, noting he could not imagine competing with Vladimir Putin.With just nine months left before Russians will go to polls to elect a new president, neither Medvedev, 45, nor his mentor Prime Minister Putin, 58, have put forth an official bid to run amid intensifying claims from businesses and observers that the continuing uncertainty was hurting Russia's investment climate.

A think-thank that advises President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday urged him to run for a second term in 2012 on a platform of modernising Russia that contrasts him from his mentor Vladimir Putin.The issue of which of Russia's two leaders will run for president one year from now has remained an open question that attracts almost daily debate.Both Putin -- who is widely seen as Russia's de facto leader despite his official status as prime minister -- and his presidential successor Medvedev have vowed not to run against each other and decide the issue in private.

Russia's leaders are increasingly mistrusted and there is a growing desire for an alternative to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin or President Dmitry Medvedev in 2012 polls, a study said Monday.The report by the pro-government think-tank Centre for Strategic Research said an unfair 2012 presidential election win by either Dmitry Medvedev or Vladimir Putin may lead to a crisis similar to one that brought down the USSR.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday added to the uncertainty surrounding Russia's 2012 presidential polls, saying he wanted a second term but would not stand against powerful predecessor Vladimir Putin.With just nine months left before the March elections, neither Medvedev, 45, nor Putin, 58, have announced their candidacy amid warnings from businesses that the uncertainty was now hurting the investment climate.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday met environmental NGOs to praise their "tough" stance, but many activists were not invited and said the gathering was unrepresentative."Many people -- especially those in authority -- do not like you because you adopt a very tough and demanding position," Medvedev, on a lawn chair, told NGO members in a Kremlin garden meeting.The Kremlin had invited 25 representatives of environmental NGOs to meet the Russian leader, who told his guests "a lot depends" on them.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was due Wednesday to push for closer ex-Soviet integration after the surprise announcement of a free trade zone being created in the former communist bloc.Former KGB agent Putin has put a closer union with the now-sovereign republics at the top of his agenda since announcing plans to return to the Kremlin in a job swap with President Dmitry Medvedev in March.

President Dmitry Medvedev Wednesday is expected to shed some light on his political ambitions in a rare news conference at the innovation centre that is the hub of his dream to modernise Russia.Astonishingly, the event at the Skolkovo centre outside Moscow at 0900 GMT is being billed as the first news conference of the entire Medvedev presidency, over three years since he took over the Kremlin from Vladimir Putin in 2008.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday launched an unprecedented attack on the party that has ruled Russia for the past decade, saying its dominance has left the country stuck in "stagnation."United Russia -- whose overall leader is prime minister and Medvedev's Kremlin predecessor Vladimir Putin -- has held an overwhelming majority in parliament since its creation in 2001.Russia's liberals have been sidelined to the point of having no members in parliament and the ruling party controls almost every legislature and governorship across the country's 11 time zones.