President Vladimir Putin said Monday that he will not seek a third term in 2008, but vowed not to allow «destabilization» in Russia in the weeks following the election, AP reported. In an interview with Dutch media on the eve of a visit to the Netherlands, Putin reiterated that he opposes changing Russia's constitution to prolong his time in power _ a possibility that has been widely discussed because his popularity and control over parliament. But Putin said that the 2008 presidential election will be a «serious, difficult test for Russia» and stressed that full power and responsibility for the fate of the country will remain in his hands until the new president is sworn in. «I will not allow any destabilization in Russia, in the interests of the ... peoples of the Russian Federation,» Putin said in the interview with Nederland 1 television and the financial newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
