Putin Says He Won't Seek Third Term

President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed Wednesday that he would not try to run again for the presidency, but said he would retain influence over Russia even after leaving office in 2008 as required by the constitution.

Speaking during a nationally televised question-and-answer session, the Russian leader also vowed that the perpetrators of the recent high-profile killings of a Central Bank regulator and well-known investigative journalist would be brought to justice. And he hailed the oil-rich country's newfound financial muscle that has sent the economy growing at an impressive rate of about 7 percent annually.

"In all, I can say we are satisfied with how the country is developing, including the economy," he said.

Sounding by turns like a populist politician, lecturing professor and concerned father, the Russian leader fielded 56 wide-ranging questions or complaints lodged by phone, e-mail, text message and video link from around the country and the Ukrainian port that is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

Questions in Putin's fifth such session since coming to office in 2000 ranged from low salaries and pensions to policies toward Russia's neighbors to the 2008 presidential elections.

The immensely popular Putin is constitutionally barred from running for a third consecutive term, but supporters and various regional groups, including in Chechnya, have called for a referendum on amending the country's laws to allow him to stay in power.

"Even having lost the powers and the levers of presidential power and not tailoring the basic law according to my personal interests, I will manage to retain the most important thing that a person involved in politics must cherish — your trust," he said. "And using that, you and I will be able to exert influence on the life of our country and guarantee its development."

"Despite the fact that I like my job, the constitution doesn't allow me to run a third time in a row," Putin told a questioner.

Dressed in a dark blue suit and striped tie and seated at a rectangular table, Putin jotted notes, carefully referred to questioners by name, and showed off his mastery of facts by reciting arcane statistics such as the length of a highway or level of property taxes that should be paid on a country house.

There has been much speculation about a successor, and two potential candidates: the dour, hawkish defense minister, Sergey Ivanov, and a technocratic deputy prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev.

After Wednesday's three-hour question-and-answer session, Russian news agencies quoted Putin as telling reporters that he was not yet prepared to name his successor.

"The time will come and I will tell you about it" through the media, the ITAR-Tass quoted him as saying.

One questioner asked about the wave of high-profile contract killings in Russia. The murders of top Central Bank regulator Andrei Kozlov and investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya this fall raised new fears that Russia was returning to the violence of the 1990s, when business disputes were commonly solved through gangland style shootings and bombings.

Putin said such killings had declined in recent years and asserted that authorities were becoming more successful in cracking down on financial crimes.

"The obligation of the state is to bring any such investigation to the end — this concerns the killings of mass media representatives and killings in the economic sphere," Putin said.

The death of Politkovskaya — who wrote many articles critical of the Russian government, particularly pertaining to the Kremlin's dealing with Chechnya — has created a divide between Moscow and Europe, where leaders have vocally criticized Putin for not ordering a more public investigation into the murder.

The European Parliament Wednesday urged EU member states to give "serious thought" to their future relations with Russia in light of the journalist's murder.

It also called for a principled stand when the EU discusses a new partnership program with Russia at a summit next month.

In a strongly worded resolution, the parliament urged the member states to "give serious thought to the future of relations with the Russian federation... with a view to placing democracy, human rights and freedom of expression at the core of any future agreement."

The parliamentarians voiced their concerns over what they called increasing intimidation, harassment and murder of journalists and other people critical of the Russian government, saying the tendency could worsen Russia's reputation abroad.

Correspondents from Russia's state-run television networks chose questioners from among small crowds in towns and cities around the vast country for Wednesday's question and answer session with Putin.

It was impossible to tell whether the questions were arranged in advance or questioners coached, but during past sessions, critics alleged that authorities and state TV reporters selected audiences allowed to go live with Putin and screened questions. None of the questions posed Wednesday could be perceived as hostile or even challenging.

Putin said Russia's economic growth would reach 6.6 percent this year, noting the government had paid off its Soviet-era debts ahead of time, and he said real income had grown about 11 percent this year.

On North Korea, Putin said Pyongyang's Oct. 9 nuclear test was "inadmissible," adding that "the way out of the current situation is to return to six-party talks." He also said that pressuring North Korea was counterproductive, and that such an approach could lead the situation into an impasse.

Amid worsening ties with Georgia, including Moscow's cut-off of transport routes to the ex-Soviet republic, Putin told one questioner that Russia was not seeking to incorporate two Georgian separatist regions where most citizens have been granted Russian citizenship. Georgia has accused Russia of encouraging the separatists.

He also reiterated that while Russia recognized the country's territorial integrity, it also recognized a people's right for self-determination.