Vladimir Putin is a hugely popular politician, moving confidently towards a second term in office and keeping his grip on power, says the article dedicated to Vladimir Putin’s dialog with Russian people during a live call-in program on Thursday, which lasted almost three hours.

When Vladimir Putin was appointed Prime Minister in 1999, few took him seriously, seeing him as a transitional figure, who would be unable to compete with the country’s powerful oligarchs. However, Mr. Putin managed to achieve such an impressive result in less than four years.

Opinion polls show that Vladimir Putin is the most popular politician in Russia after Peter the Great, The Times says. His straightforward and tough style strikes a chord with Russian voters, apparently longing for tough control and a strong central power. There is little doubt in Russia that Mr. Putin will be re-elected for a second term in the presidential elections next year, the newspaper notes. A more important question is whether other candidates should take their chance and whether it makes sense at all to go to the polls if the result is a foregone conclusion.

In view of this, there is a risk that the doctrine of so-called “managed democracy”, which has recently been announced by Russian authorities, gave the incumbent President too much power. Western nations are seriously concerned that Russia could once again depart from its newly acquired democratic values to a strong authoritarian power, which characterized much of Russia’s long history, the newspaper concludes.