Medvedev says he hasn’t ruled out running for second term as Russian president

Medvedev not ruling out run in 2012

MOSCOW — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says he hasn’t ruled out running for a second term in 2012.

Questions about whether he will run have swirled since his predecessor and mentor Vladimir Putin indicated last week that he was also interested in running for another term.

Putin is now prime minister, technically the country’s second-in-command post, but many observers see him as still running the country while Medvedev acts more as a mild-mannered placeholder.

Medvedev on Tuesday told a gathering of Western political observers that “A while ago, I had no intention of running for the presidency, but … I am not ruling out anything,” Russian news agencies reported.