Putin, 72, says succession is always on his mind

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin, the longest serving Kremlin chief since Josef Stalin, said in remarks aired on Sunday that he was always thinking about the succession, and suggested that there could be an contest between several candidates.

Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who was handed the presidency on the last day of 1999 Boris Yeltsin, served as president from 1999 to 2008, then as prime minister until 2012, and then again as president from 2012 to the present.

"I always think about it," Putin, 72, said when asked if he thought about the succession in a film by state television about Putin's quarter of a century as Russia's paramount leader entitled "Russia, Kremlin, Putin, 25 years".

"Ultimately, the choice is for the people, for the Russian people," Putin said. "I think that there should be a person, or rather several people, so that the people have a choice."

There is no clear successor to Putin though under the Russian constitution, if the president was unable to fulfill his duties, then the prime minister - currently Mikhail Mishustin - would assume presidential powers.