据报道，俄罗斯总统普京重申将在2008年卸任，并表示他会向接班人建议要“消除贫穷和确保经济强劲增长”。在其莫斯科市郊的官邸里，普京举行了午餐会，并向大约50名外国专家发表了近4个小时的讲话。普京并没有提到卸任之后的去向，不过，在言谈中他一度表示对政治感到厌倦，也感叹自己无法铲除贪污风气。同时，普京回答了许多问题，包括外交和内政。对制裁伊朗的做法他不表赞同，并含蓄地表示反对科索沃独立，他也盛赞乌克兰总统尤先科。至于美国总统布什，普京尽量给予布什正面的评价，不过，他认为布什是个“不称职的顾问”。谈到俄罗斯和中国的关系他给予了肯定。

Russian President Vladimir Putin steps downstairs in this undated photo. [AP] Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday vowed to step down in 2008 and said he would recommend his successor fight poverty and ensure strong economic growth, said experts who attended a lunch with the president.  Putin spoke for nearly four hours to a group of about 50 foreign experts over lunch at his Novo-Ogaryovo residency outside Moscow, according to people who attended the meeting. "The most interesting point was that he reiterated that he does not plan to run again for office in 2008 as he believes he has a moral duty not to break the constitution," said Angela Stent, director of the center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies at Georgetown University in Washington. A Kremlin spokesman confirmed the meeting but said he could not immediately give comments. Putin, 53, declined to give any details about who could succeed him in 2008, when he must step down after two four-year terms in office. Because the Kremlin has so much power, the issue of his successor is the hottest political topic in Russia. During the lunch of artichoke soup, octopus carpaccio and sea bass, Putin did not say what he would do after he stepped down but at one point even expressed weariness with politics and said he had not been successful in rooting out corruption. Answering dozens of questions, Putin ranged across foreign and domestic policy, speaking out against sanctions on Iran, implicitly opposing independence for Kosovo and heaping praise on Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko. He said it was his job to improve relations with the United States, which have cooled because of differences over gas supplies to Europe, accession to the World Trade Organization and competition for allies among ex-Soviet nations. But he criticized Bush's "bad advisors" and said the European Union "was very difficult to deal with," although the Kremlin wanted a closer partnership with it, people at the meeting said. He also praised Russia's relationship with China. (Agencies)

Vocabulary:

step down: 辞职、下台、退位 run for: 竞选 root out: 铲除 sanctions: 制裁 （英语点津陈蓓编辑）