Vladimir Putin continues to insist he will respect the term limits in Russia’s constitution and step down in 2008. Which is good news, although it remains to be seen if he will follow through. Putin also had some KGB humor to offer Russian TV viewers in a nationally televised interview:
“I do not see my goal as sitting in the Kremlin endlessly and having Channels One, Two and Three constantly show the same face, and if someone chooses a different channel, the FSB director would appear on the screen and tell viewers to go back to the first three channels,” he said during the nearly three-hour program, alluding to a joke from Soviet times. The FSB is the domestic successor of the KGB, the feared Soviet security service.
If Putin actually steps down, it will mark the second time a Russian leader has done so; meaning an actual precedent has been set. Even more, as teenagers who recall Yeltsin stepping down, who then became the adults in Russian society, see this, they come to realize that, in a true democratic society, leaders are supposed to leave while still upright.
Clearly George Washginton’s greatest legacy was his willingness to say he would “run” for president, ensuring enough states would vote to ratify the consititution. His second greatest was his desire to say, “Enough already. I want to go home now. John, Tommy, all yours…”