April 18 (Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin may give Russians something they aren't used to in next year's presidential election: a choice.

Putin, who has been promoting two candidates for the March 2008 election, might allow Russians to decide which they prefer, former officials and political analysts say. That would provide at least the appearance of democracy while guaranteeing a loyalist will succeed him.

Putin, 54, has pledged not to change the constitution to allow him to run next year, while saying he wants to retain influence. Engineering a presidential election run-off would allow him to dismiss Western and opposition critics who accuse him of rolling back post-Soviet democratic freedoms.

Managing the succession is ``the only thing that seriously worries Putin,'' Boris Nemtsov, an opposition leader who served as deputy prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin, said in an interview. Giving voters a real if limited choice ``allows Russia to say we don't have a successor, we have two candidates, we have democracy.''

The two who appear likeliest to win Putin's blessing are First Deputy Prime Ministers Dmitry Medvedev, 41, a former law professor who dresses in well-tailored suits and is a friendly face for foreign investors, and Sergei Ivanov, 54, a career KGB spy who was defense minister until February, whose tough persona plays well with ordinary Russians.

Allies From St. Petersburg

The two are both close allies of Putin's from his hometown of St. Petersburg; their doings and pronouncements are featured frequently on national TV and in major newspapers, which under Putin have fallen under state control.

``The most important issue at the election will be how the candidates can guarantee Putin's legacy,'' said Sergei Markov, director of the Moscow-based Institute for Political Studies, who works closely with the Kremlin.

Medvedev, who became first deputy prime minister in November 2005, is in charge of spending $11 billion to upgrade housing, education and health care. He also serves as chairman of OAO Gazprom, Europe's largest natural-gas supplier, which has become a powerful instrument of Putin's foreign policy.

Ivanov, who was promoted to equal rank with Medvedev in February, is responsible for diversifying Russia's oil- and gas- dependent economy and developing high-technology industries, including aeronautics and space.

Second Round

Under Russia's electoral system, a candidate must get more than 50 percent of votes cast to win in the first round, as Putin did in 2004. If not, the top two contenders contest a run-off.

A two-horse race between Ivanov and Medvedev would likely keep opposition candidates out of the second round, said Igor Mintusov, who advised last year on the creation of a new pro- Kremlin party, Fair Russia.

``This would be fantastic,'' said Mintusov, whose political consulting firm, Nikkolo M, is named for Niccolo Machiavelli, the Italian Renaissance master of dark political arts.

A March 16-19 survey of 1,600 Russians by the Levada Center, Russia's largest independent polling agency, found that Medvedev had the backing of 31 percent of voters, while Ivanov had 25 percent.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it wouldn't be surprising to have both candidates in a run-off supporting the president's policies. An ``overwhelming majority of the population'' wants stability, he said in an interview at his office in the Kremlin. Putin's popularity ratings are above 80 percent, thanks to oil- fueled economic growth in its ninth straight year.

A Third Term?

The president has so far dismissed suggestions -- most recently from Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the upper house of parliament -- that he change the constitution to allow himself to run for a third four-year term next year. Mironov said March 30 that Putin had ``returned a sense of pride to Russians'' after the chaos and impoverishment of the 1990s.

Peskov, in the interview, said there ``will be a contest'' to determine Putin's successor. Changing the constitution would require the backing of two thirds of lawmakers in the lower house of parliament and three quarters of the upper house, as well as the support of two-thirds of Russia's 85 regional legislatures.

`Influence Life'

In a nationwide phone-in last October, Putin -- who even if he steps down next year would have the right to run again in 2012 -- said he still wants to ``influence life'' in Russia. No one knows quite what that means: Speculation in the Russian media has had him taking over as leader of the ruling United Russia party, becoming prime minister, or as head either of Gazprom or of the State Council, an advisory body to the president.

Nor is it a given that, if he does step down, his successor will be one of the two most visible candidates. Russian media mentions the names of potential dark-horse successors, such as Russian railways chief Vladimir Yakunin, who is also close to Putin.

That would mirror the circumstances in which Putin, then the little-known head of the KGB's successor agency, came to power himself. Yeltsin made him prime minister in August 1999; he took over as acting president after Yeltsin's surprise Dec. 31 resignation and won election three months later.

``Everyone is playing their part in this drama,'' said Olga Khryshtanovskaya, a Moscow-based researcher who studies the Russian political elite. ``And we don't know how it will end.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 17, 2007 16:08 EDT