Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will hold a live call-in show on national television next week, in what analysts say may signal the start of his campaign to regain the presidency.

The broadcast will be held “in the first week of December,” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said by phone today. The exact date will be announced later this week, he said.

State news channel Vesti will broadcast the event on Dec. 4, Internet-based newspaper gazeta.ru reported, citing the channel’s press service and unidentified officials in Putin’s political party, United Russia.

Putin, who has remained at the center of power as premier since stepping down as president in May, last week vowed to protect Russians from another financial collapse like the 1998 default in a speech to United Russia’s annual party congress. He will use the call-in show to further cement his credentials as a national leader in a time of crisis, said Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a political analyst at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

“This is to maintain his status as national leader,” Kryshtanovskaya said by telephone today. “He needs to remind everyone that he is the most important person in the country and can solve problems in difficult times.”

Economic Slowdown

Russia is bracing itself for slower economic growth as the global financial crisis brings an end to a 10-year energy-fueled boom. Russia’s international reserves, the world’s third- largest, are shrinking as the government acts to avoid a sharp decline in the ruble.

President Dmitry Medvedev, 43, who has been overshadowed by Putin since taking over as his chosen successor, will be out of the country on a visit to India in early December.

Putin, 56, may persuade Medvedev to step down next year, analysts say. This would trigger snap elections that could allow Putin to return as president for up to 12 years, if a constitutional amendment extending the presidential term to six years from four becomes law as expected next month. Heads of state in Russia are limited to two consecutive terms and can return only after a period out of office.

President from 2000 to 2008, Putin held an annual nationwide call-in for the past seven years, broadcast live and lasting several hours, with questions on a wide range of issues submitted by TV link-up, phone and Internet. The event dominated TV news coverage on the days it aired.

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

Last Updated: November 25, 2008 05:34 EST