Putin : Political stability ‘very important’ for Russia’s economic recovery

Political stability is very important for Russia’s economic recovery and further growth, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday in an interview with three national TV channels. Putin, who was constitutionally barred from standing for a third consecutive presidential term in 2008, will represent United Russia in next year’s presidential elections. Referring to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served four consecutive terms as U.S. president and managed to tackle the consequences of the Great Depression, Putin emphasized that stability of political power helps countries survive bad times. “When a country is in a difficult, complicated situation, just emerging from a crisis and finding its feet, elements of stability in the political sphere are of vital importance,” Putin said. “We survived very hard times in the 1990s and only in the beginning if the 2000s did we begin regaining our footing, set interior peace, and stabilized the situation. Of course we need a period of stable growth,” the prime minister added.