Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview published on Thursday that he and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin would make a joint decision on the future of their "effective" ruling tandem.

Medvedev, who was Putin's handpicked successor, has run Russia alongside the powerful premier since winning the 2008 presidential elections.

Putin was constitutionally barred from standing for a third successive term, but analysts and media outlets have predicted he will run again in 2012, where he could face Medvedev.

"As for our political future, nobody knows this. But we are responsible people and we will certainly discuss the political future of our country and our role in it," Medvedev told the Paris Match weekly ahead of a March 1-3 visit to France.

He also said that his partnership with Putin had been "advantageous" for Russia.

Medvedev, 44, the first Russian leader without a Soviet political background, said he has maintained a good relationship with Putin, a former KGB officer 13 years his senior.

"It's good when the president and the premier get on," he commented.

Putin recently said he and Medvedev were "of the same blood" and "share political views."

"Vladimir Putin was right about the blood," Medvedev joked. "We really have the same blood type in the medical sense of the word, recent tests have shown this,"

Putin has retained much power as premier and is believed by many to have played the first fiddle in the tandem.

Medvedev, seen as more liberal politician than Putin, has recently come to the foreground with an independent political line. He has pledged to curb corruption and the economic backwardness that he says is threatening Russia's future.

MOSCOW, February 25 (RIA Novosti)