President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday he and his predecessor and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have retained friendship.
"Relations of friendship have not changed, and I am sure they won't," Medvedev said during a live interview with three state channels in which he gave an overview of the outgoing year.
Medvedev, chosen by Putin as his successor, is believed to have played second fiddle under the powerful premier. However, he has recently come to the foreground with an independent political line.
Media have reported growing frictions between the president and premier, who vowed to run the country in tandem. Both have not ruled out that they will run in the 2012 presidential elections.
In the interview with the top managers of Channel One, Rossiya and NTV, Medvedev also dismissed a media perception of Putin as a former KGB spy and a strongman, and himself as a "young liberal lawyer."
"We have very much in common," Medvedev said referring to their common background in St. Petersburg.
MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti)
