The Financial Times reports: “Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will return to his post as president next year after he and president Dmitry Medvedev announced they were switching jobs.

The announcement was made at the annual conference of United Russia, the hegemonic party that controls two-thirds of Russia’s parliament. It put to rest intrigue over Mr. Putin’s next move.

The announcement confirms the long-held impression that Mr. Medvedev was only ever a place holder for Mr. Putin, who was constitutionally prohibited from a third term after serving as president from 2000-2008.

Mr. Putin is now likely to win two consecutive 6 year terms, giving him a total of a quarter century in power from the time he took over the Kremlin in 2000. He remains Russia’s strongest political figure despite stepping aside for four years.

Mr. Putin started proceedings, telling delegates that Mr. Medvedev would succeed him in heading the United Russia party’s election list in December 4 parliamentary elections. Later, he suggested Mr. Medvedev’s candidacy for prime minister, which Mr. Medvedev accepted…” (It looks very promising that Vladimir Putin could become the “Gog of Magog” that heads up Russia for the war of the “Latter years and latter days” – Armageddon – Ezekiel 38:1, 2, 8, 16; Revelation 16:16.)

Reuters reports: “Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he wants to bring ex-Soviet states into a ‘Eurasian Union’ in an article which outlined his first foreign policy initiative as he prepares to return to the Kremlin as the country’s next president.

Putin said the new union would build on an existing Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan which from next year will remove all barriers to trade, capital and labor movement between the three countries.

‘We are not going to stop there and are setting an ambitious goal — to achieve an even higher integration level in the Eurasian Union,’ Putin wrote in an article published in Izvestia newspaper on October 4.

Putin said he would run in the March 2012 presidential election and his current public approval ratings show that he is set to win.

Putin’s initiative comes as Russia nears the end of its 18-year-old negotiations to join the World Trade Organization. In the article Putin made no secret of his skepticism about the global trade watchdog…” (This headline is stunning prophetically speaking since Russia and “the kings of the East” [Orient], yes, the ‘Eurasian Union’ unite for the greatest war in history – Daniel 11:44; Ezekiel 38 & 39; Revelation 16:12; Revelation 9:14-18.)

Voice of America News reports: “Russian President Dmitri Medvedev will swap jobs next year with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. In this report from Washington, senior correspondent Andre de Nesnera looks at the ramifications of such a move.

Russian political experts say the announcement that Vladimir Putin will run for president in next year’s elections while Dmitri Medvedev will become prime minister in a new government took no one by surprise.

‘People have been puzzling over what was going to happen, knowing that it would be between the two of them for some time, and a lot of people for some time have thought Putin intended to come back,’ said Robert Legvold, a Russia expert at Columbia University. ‘Remember two years ago when they extended the presidential term [from four to six years], the assumption was that had been pushed through so that Putin could come back even earlier than a regular constitutional election. So it’s been around for some time.’…” (I proclaimed that this move would occur when Putin’s term ended. See the opening article.)

The Fars News Agency reports: “Russia is alarmed at the US decision to station four ships at a base on Spain’s Atlantic coast as part of an American-led NATO missile defense system, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, warning that the move would provoke a new arms race.

The US approach to developing its capability against missile threats in Europe is ‘unacceptable,’ the ministry said in a statement published on its website.

Russia ‘cannot but be alarmed because already in the first phase it’s leading to a substantial buildup of the US anti- missile capability in Europe,’ the ministry said.

Spain is the fourth European nation agreeing to participate directly in the Europe-wide missile defense program, intended to protect against attacks from adversaries allegedly Russia, China and Iran. US President Barack Obama pursued US plans for the system in 2009, and the administration has obtained agreements with Poland, Romania and Turkey to host elements of the shield.

The Navy cruisers, equipped with Aegis radar, will operate from the Rota naval base in Southwestern Spain, a facility built by the US military in the 1950s and used by both countries, giving ready access to the Mediterranean in potential clashes.

Russia has warned the US-led plan may provoke a new arms race and upset a strategic balance in the region by threatening its nuclear deterrent capability…” (From the day President Obama signed the non-proliferation treaty, I predicted it would fail and signs of what I said are beginning to develop as the Cold War nears again. Russia will and must fulfill prophecy – Ezekiel 38:1, 2, 8, 11, 16; 39:1, 2, 12, 13; Joel 2:3, 20, 30.)