Russian President Vladimir Putin dropped a bombshell on Monday when he announced that he was running in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. The move will effectively allow him to hold onto power even after he gives up the presidency next spring. Putin had vowed that he would abide by the constitution which forbids a third consecutive term in that office, but it had been clear that the 54-year-old was not ready to shuffle off quietly into the sunset of retirement just yet.

Putin told an ecstatic crowd at the congress of the Kremlin-controlled United Russia party that it was "entirely realistic" that he could become prime minister. He said that the party would first have to win the elections to the Duma in December and then Russia would need to elect a president who is "decent, competent, effective and modern," with whom it would be "possible to work in tandem."

Analysts are already predicting that Putin will now place one of his followers in the Kremlin who would then answer to him. This could well be the newly appointed Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, who has no power base of his own and who as president could be expected to fall in with whatever plans Putin has for the power structures in Russia.

Commentators in Germany are critical of Putin's bid to cling on to power and voice concern that instead of bringing stability to Russia these moves could end up achieving the opposite.

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"This plan is in stark contrast to the hierarchy of powers envisaged by the Russian constitution. It immediately raises the question of who will have the ultimate say in future: the newly elected president or his dynamic predecessor who is head of government."

"The constitution gives the president a huge amount of power, with the prime minister doing his bidding. It is, however, unthinkable that a powerful figure like Putin will in future accept a strong boss over him. As prime minister Putin would presumably dismantle the architecture of the constitution. That is incompatible with a democratic understanding of the rule of law whereby institutions are more important than personalities."

"The deal that Putin seems to be striking with his closest followers is also highly risky for him. He is basing it on the assumption that all of those involved will stick to the agreement and that the presidential puppet, who will be chosen as Putin's successor, will not suddenly decide that he would like to be number one himself. It the puppet comes to life, then the situation in Moscow might not just become unstable, it could become dangerous."

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"Power in Russia is looking for a new bottle, but it's still the same old wine … One can interpret this solution as something positive. There had been some forecasts of a phase of instability after Putin left office, with an internal conflict between Putin pulling the strings in the background and the new president, even if he were there with Vladimir's blessing. If Putin becomes prime minister then this conflict will be avoided, and the power relations will be fixed for some time. But stability has a high price. The state, society and economy in Russia will become even more rigid."

"A society that is forced together by authoritarian centralism will inevitably develop countervailing forces again. Putin's stability is only borrowed and, therefore, won't last long."

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"Where there is democracy there are elections. But that doesn’t mean that everywhere where there are elections there is democracy."

"According to the constitution, Putin has to give up his office -- but he is not disposed to giving up power. It looks like there will be a president, perhaps Zubkov, who will answer to a Prime Minister Putin. Then in the 2012 election Putin could return to his original position."

"Putin is playing a high risk game. Not just the constitution, but also the Russian concept of the state, clearly rules that there is only one leadership figure in the state -- the president. The construction that Putin is now striving for could take Russia far from the goal that is allegedly most important to the Kremlin boss: stability."

The business daily Handelsblatt writes:

"All this has an advantage over the many other scenarios, most of which had the ex-president as an éminence grise heading an advisory council: It has the semblance of law and order."

"This has little to do with true democracy. Nevertheless the signals from the Kremlin go down well with most Russian voters. The majority of Russian citizens have a desire for stability, despite a latent dissatisfaction with the state."