After concluding the plenary session of the Energy Week forum, the president answered questions from US CNBC television channel journalist, Hadley Gamble, and published on the Kremlin official website.

Asked about a possible successor to his post, he answered No, ‘I prefer not to answer those questions, this is my traditional answer’, he said, adding that there is still a long time for the elections and ‘talks on this issue will destabilize the situation’.

For Putin, the country must function in a ‘calm and stable manner so that all government bodies, all state structures work with confidence and look to the future calmly’.

In another part of the interview, the head of state said the creation of a new security association between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia (Aukus) threatens regional stability.

‘In my opinion, it is good to be friends, but to be friends against someone later is bad. It undermines the stability that we all talk about and that we care about’, he said.

However, he expressed his hope that the current tension will not develop according to some unpredictable scenario and will not put additional tensions in the region.

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