President Vladimir Putin on Thursday made his clearest rejection yet of speculation that he would try to seek a third term, but gave no hint in his state of the nation address as to whom he sees as his preferred successor.

Moscow ? President Vladimir Putin told Russians more clearly than ever Thursday that he will step down when his second term ends next spring, but left his choice of a successor tantalizingly unclear.

Speaking a day after the burial of Boris Yeltsin, who handed him Russia’s reins seven years ago, Putin rejected claims he has retreated from democracy and stifled freedoms that flourished under his predecessor.

The constitution adopted under Yeltsin bars presidents from serving three straight terms. But Putin’s popularity – and Russia’s lean experience with democratic power transfers – led to persistent speculation that he might stay on.

Putin previously dismissed the idea but occasionally left confusing hints. On Thursday, in his state of the nation speech to parliament, he seemed to clarify the issue: “The next state of the nation address will be given by another head of state.”

For some lawmakers, those words were the most important in the 75-minute speech.

“He’s leaving, that’s the main thing,” said Alexei Mitrofanov, a lawmaker with flamboyant ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.

But Putin also said nothing to reverse previous hints he wants to keep a hand in Russia’s rule from behind the scenes.

He also acknowledged expectations he would use the speech to reveal his choice for a successor, then drew a laugh by saying, “It is premature for me to declare a political will.”

Putin’s mix of clarity and coyness is part of the style that has emerged in his public statements, including the annual speech to parliament.

Characteristically sanguine about Russia’s future and combative toward the West, Putin charged that foreign forces are out to undermine the country’s resurgence.

With tensions high between Moscow and Washington over U.S. plans to deploy missile defenses in former Soviet bloc states, Putin threatened to suspend participation in a treaty regulating the deployment of non-nuclear military forces in Europe until the U.S. and other NATO members ratify it.

As in previous speeches, Putin painted a picture of a Russia struggling nobly to thrive in the face of external forces seeking to subvert the still-vulnerable country:

“There are those who, skillfully using pseudo-democratic rhetoric, would like to return to the recent past – some to loot the country’s national riches, to rob the people and the state; others to strip us of economic and political independence. There is a growth in the flow of money from abroad for direct interference in our internal affairs.”