Russians back Putin for PM

October 02, 2007

Investors and politicians said Putin has unveiled a plan that suggested he would be the real power behind the Kremlin after 2008 while a new president would take a secondary role. Critics see the move as a return to the power structures of the Soviet Union. But ordinary Russians, for whom Putin is a hugely popular figure, backed the outgoing president's plan to stay in politics as the "best solution" for the country.