MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s paramount leader, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, hinted on Monday he would return to the presidency in 2012 for six more years and said democracy protesters marching without permission deserved to be beaten.

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (C) meets with local residents at the village of Aksionovo-Zilovskoe in the Zabaikalski region, August 30, 2010. REUTERS/Ria Novosti/Pool/Alexei Druzhinin

Asked by the Kommersant daily newspaper in an interview whether Russia’s 2012 presidential election did not worry him because he had already decided it, Putin replied:

“No, it interests me like...I wanted to say like everyone, but in fact more than everyone else. But I don’t want to make a fetish out of it.”

Putin ruled as president from 2000 to 2008 before handing the presidency to his chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev, in order to observe a law banning a third consecutive term.

However Putin will be free to run again in 2012 for a newly extended term of six years.

“The most important thing is that these problems of 2012 don’t derail us from the path of stable development,” Putin added in the interview.

In separate remarks on Monday to Russian reporters, Putin praised Medvedev’s conduct of Russia’s foreign policy, which he said was just as strong as its domestic policy.

“I am tired of dealing with foreign policy,” Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying. “Dmitry Anatolyevich (Medvedev) is doing this work well. Why butt in? It’s not a hobby”.

Putin said he and Medvedev frequently discussed foreign policy but claimed that the decisions were always left to Medvedev and dismissed as “blabber” the notion that he was still running the country.

Putin also said the two men were discussing possible cabinet changes.

“There are things which probably need to change” he remarked, before cautioning that a major shake-up could damage the government’s effectiveness ahead of the elections.

Putin’s remarks in the extended Kommersant newspaper interview with his longtime favorite journalist Andrei Kolesnikov were immediately seized upon by some Moscow commentators as further evidence that he would return to the Kremlin in two years time.

Kommersant said the interview was conducted during a 180-km (110-mile) drive in a bright yellow Lada Kalina car between the cities of Khabarovsk and Chita in Russia’s Far East.

The Ekho Moskvy radio station, which gives airtime to opposition views, reacted by polling listeners on whether they backed another Putin presidency.

Some 86 percent said “no”, a result which reflected the station’s Moscow middle-class audience. But it is not typical of average Russians, among whom Putin remains popular, polls show.

In the Kommersant interview, Putin robustly defended police crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters in recent months. He said those who marched must obey current laws requiring them to seek advance permission from local authorities.

“If you get (permission), you go and march,” Putin said. “If you don’t - you have no right to. Go without permission, and you will be hit on the head with batons. That’s all there is to it.”

Moscow authorities this month suddenly fenced off Triumph Square, a popular rallying point for opposition protesters, saying they planned to build an underground car park.

Opposition groups said the previously unannounced car park plan was a ruse to stop protests.

Putin said he was unaware of the square’s closure and reinforced this by using a popular Soviet Communist Party expression: “Believe me, I don’t know about that...I give you my honest word as a party member”.

Commenting on foreign relations, Putin said he “really wants to believe” in a warming of relations between Washington and Moscow promoted by U.S. President Barack Obama.

But he warned there were still factors which could upset the so-called “reset” in ties between the two Cold War superpowers.

Chief among them was what Putin termed the “re-arming” of U.S. ally Georgia following its 2008 war with Russia. “A long-term rearming of Georgia is going on,” he said. “What for ? But it is for real. We already see it.”

Putin also criticised U.S. plans for anti-missile systems in central Europe, saying that although Washington had abandoned plans to station missile batteries in Poland, there could still be a radar base in the Czech Republic and other countries in the region might host elements of the system.

“So where is this ‘reset’ ?,” Putin asked. “We don’t see it yet in this area.”