Kemerovo, 21 June: Russian presidential aide Igor Shuvalov believes that the media have distorted the content of a speech he made in at American Centre for Strategic and International Studies regarding presidential candidates. (REFERENCE to reports that Shuvalov allegedly said Putin could back a "third", as yet unknown candidate as his successor)

"I did not mean anything like that. My view is the following: since newspapers reported on what I had not said at all, there is a need to talk about it," Shuvalov told journalists in Kemerovo.

Answering a question as to whether he meant someone in particular when he said last week that one should not think that all the presidential candidates in Russia are already known, Shuvalov said: "I was speaking in a strategic centre where people are professionally involved in political science, and were asking questions about the present and prospects for developing Russia. Looking at the way it was interpreted I consider this to be a desire to discuss this topic publicly. But I did not have anyone particular in mind, no individual, and I did not mean what was reported," Shuvalov said.

Answering a question about giving a new job to the former chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, Aleksandr Veshnyakov, Shuvalov said: "I do not know anything about this. I was not involved in this issue."