Reuters Vladimir Putin has an answer for Russians worried that his return to the presidency next year will usher in an era of stagnation: study the careers of Franklin D. Roosevelt or Charles de Gaulle. Putin could be president until 2024 if he wins the maximum two successive terms and by then would have ruled for almost a quarter of a century. His decision to reclaim the presidency has brought frequent comparisons with Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev, whose 18-year rule of the Soviet Union until his death in 1982 is widely seen as an era of political and economic stagnation. But Putin, who has remained Russia's paramount leader even as prime minister since 2008, prefers to hold up the examples of long-serving Western leaders to justify his return to the Kremlin, which is all but certain in next March's election. The former KGB spy's history lessons also give a sense of how he views himself and could provide clues about what his next presidency will hold. Asked about his decision to return to the post he held for eight years until 2008, Putin corrected an interviewer who referred to Roosevelt, the longest-serving US president. “Yes, Roosevelt was elected three times,” said Konstantin Ernst, the head of the Pervyi Kanal (First Channel). “No,” Putin, 59, snapped back, wagging his finger at Ernst. “Four times.” Roosevelt won elections in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944, and died in office in 1945, months after the Yalta Conference where he, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill carved up Europe at the end of World War II. “He ruled the country in the toughest years of economic depression and in World War II and was elected four times because he was effective,” said Putin, who won presidential elections in 2000 and 2004. After praising Roosevelt, Putin went on to list other long-serving leaders including Helmut Kohl, who was German chancellor for 16 years. He also said he liked de Gaulle, France's president from 1959 to 1969. Like Putin, Roosevelt, De Gaulle and Kohl rose to power in tumultuous times but used iron will and considerable popularity to gain almost complete dominance. Styled by his ruling party as Russia's “national leader”, Putin says his biggest achievement is to have saved Russia from collapse after the chaos and humiliation that accompanied the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Putin, and some of the people who own chunks of the world's biggest energy producer, believe he is a ruler who can ensure stability, at least for now. “He thinks of himself as a national leader,” said Nikolai Petrov, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. Heroes of their time to supporters, Roosevelt, De Gaulle and Kohl forged fiercely independent foreign policies but, like Putin, were criticized for accruing too much power. Opponents say Russia's stability is a mirage because Putin's decision to stay in power makes a brittle and atrophied political system too dependent on one man. __
