Putin says unlikely to display new president's portrait

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

MOSCOW (AFP) — When Dmitry Medvedev takes over the Kremlin after next month's presidential election, his portrait will spring up in bureaucrats' offices across Russia -- but not over the desk of his likely prime minister Vladimir Putin.

Putin -- who confirmed Thursday that he wanted to switch from the presidency to premiership after he steps down this May following two Kremlin terms -- said there was nothing "shameful" with the common practise of showing loyalty to the president by hanging up his picture.

The president "in a way is a symbol of the country like the crest, the flag or the anthem," he said.

But "if I become head of the government, there is something particularly unique in the fact that I was president for eight years, and didn't do too badly,"...