Vladimir Putin hints at another long stint as president

Speaking before the Valdai discussion club, a group of experts on Russia, Putin said that he would decide whether to stand closer to the event.

Neither he nor Russia's existing president, Dmitry Medvedev, would act against Russia's constitution, he added. Putin said he would continue to "share power" with Medvedev and they would work together until the next election.

"We have not decided what will be the best for Russia," Putin said, speaking at his residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Putin's latest comments failed to clarify whether – as most experts now assume – he will elbow Medvedev aside during the presidential poll in spring 2012.

But they come against what looks suspiciously like a re-election campaign that has seen Putin take command of Russia's forest fire crisis over the summer and embark on a media-friendly road trip across the Far East in a bright – if somewhat breakdown-prone – yellow Lada. Today Putin suggested there was nothing wrong with presidents who spent several decades in office, citing the example of Roosevelt, who clocked up a record stint in the White House. "Roosevelt was elected four times in accordance with the US constitution," Putin pointed out.

Under Russia's constitution Putin was obliged to step down as president in 2008 after two presidential terms. He then became prime minister. But there is nothing to stop him serving two more terms – now extended to six years – raising the prospect that he could still be running Russia in 2024.

In reality, Putin has remained Russia's supreme political arbiter, ranging well beyond his domestic prime ministerial brief. Today Putin praised the US president, Barack Obama, as "sincere". The improvement in US-Russian relations has been one of the few real foreign policy achievements of Obama's presidency.

But Putin was scathing about opposition protesters, who have been holding meetings both in Russia and abroad – including in London last week – on the 31st of each month. Picking up from an interview with Kommersant newspaper, when he said demonstrators deserved a "whack on the bonce", Putin dismissed those rallying as a marginal force.

He said everybody had a right to express their views, but added that some people deliberately provoked a police beating to capture the media's attention. "Some people want to be beaten by truncheons. They lack patience. They hold private ambitions," Putin said, adding: "Those groups are behaving in such a way that they are not a political force in the country."

Putin also defended Russia's strong vertical political system and his contentious decision in 2005 to abolish gubernatorial elections. The Kremlin now handpicks governors.