Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with AFP and Le Figaro on Monday that he is not ruling out a return to the Kremlin after his 2008-12 single term as Russian head of state but was happy working as premier under his mentor President Vladimir Putin.

"If I have sufficient strength and health, if our people trust me in the future with such a position, then of course I do not rule out such a turn of events."

"Never say never, especially as I swam in that river once, and this is a river that you can swim in twice," he said.

Medvedev served as president after Putin stepped aside following the maximum two consecutive terms allowed by the constitution after his 2000-08 stint.

But Putin, 60, stayed on as a powerful prime minister and Medvedev, 47, never fully emerged from the shadow of his fellow Saint Petersburg native, an impression strongly reinforced when Putin returned to the Kremlin in May.

Medvedev played up the tight links between the two men, saying: "I would hardly have become prime minister under another president. I cannot imagine it at all."

Agence France-Presse