Putin Aide Wants Super-regions to Prevent Break-up of Russia

President Vladimir Putin's chief of staff warned yesterday that Russia could break up into several different countries and proposed the creation of "super-regions" to be headed by Kremlin appointees.

Dmitri Medvedev said in a rare interview that, unless the political and business elites work together, "Russia could disappear as a united country".

The warning over Russia's territorial integrity was interpreted by analysts as an attempt to shore up support within Russia's elite for the Putin administration as a battle rages over who will head the Kremlin after Mr Putin's second term ends in 2008.

Mr Medvedev told the magazine Expert: "Empires disappeared from maps when elites lost the ideas that united them and entered into mortal combat. The disintegration of the Soviet Union would look like a party in a nursery school."

He said the Kremlin was considering a plan under which Russia's 89 regions may be merged into several "super-regions". He said this could be "a way of developing the federation within the existing constitution".

The move would further increase Mr Putin's powers. In the wake of the Beslan tragedy, parliament passed legislation that meant regional governors would be appointed by the president rather than elected.

Vladimir Pribylovsky, a political analyst, suggested that Mr Medvedev's comments were a scare tactic. "Nobody wants the country to fall apart, so whenever the bureaucrats want to defend [themselves or a policy] they use this."

Some of Mr Putin's advisers are said to want him to stay on for a third term, perhaps as prime minister in a newly formed parliamentary republic. But Beslan and popular discontent at benefit reforms have led to a drop in Mr Putin's popularity, causing others to seek a successor. Mr Medvedev admitted that Mr Putin's team was divided on several issues. "This is good. We are not the central committee of the Communist party, and we do not think uniformly."

The interview also betrayed how popular discontent at Mr Putin's government has caused the Kremlin to rethink its strategy. MPs from the United Russia party, the base of Mr Putin's support in parliament, have suggested forming new liberal and libertarian parties for disaffected voters. Mr Medvedev said a "rightwing" party could be founded from a "faction inside United Russia".

Mr Medvedev also confirmed that the Kremlin wants to limit foreign investment in key industries - energy, transport and finance. "The independence of Russia can be based only on national capital. In any way it can't be in a weaker position than foreign [capital in] natural resource companies, transport, finance, and some other enterprises."

The comments will irk BP, which has half the shares in oil giant TNK/BP and would oppose taking a minority stake.

The resignation of the ousted president of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev, comes into effect today, ending a political crisis in the central Asian state that began 12 days ago when amob took over his state offices, forcing him to flee to Russia.