I went to see Vladimir Putin's spokesman the other night, BBC reported.
Dmitry Peskov is tall and urbane. He chain smokes Marlboro Red cigarettes and speaks excellent English.
He is also a master of evading the tricky question.
So the last thing I was expecting was him to admit that his boss is planning a return to the Kremlin.
He didn't, of course. But he came tantalisingly close. I asked if Mr Putin could come back as president and stay until 2024.
"I certainly hope so," he said.
"If you do the maths that is absolutely possible."
It is possible because Russia is changing its constitution, and doing so with unseemly haste.
President Dmitry Medvedev may have called for the change. But few doubt that the real architect is Mr Putin.
"What this shows is that Medvedev is carrying out Putin's plan," says Mikhail Fishman, editor of Russian Newsweek.
He says its now clear President Medvedev is not an independent operator, but has been put in power to carry out specific orders made by Mr Putin.
Putin is the most powerful leader in Russia since Stalin
Mikhail Fishman
Editor, Russian Newsweek
"One of those was that he had to appoint Putin to be his prime minister. Another is that he has to change the constitution. What we don't know is what other orders he has."
Some think the next item on Mr Medvedev's list will be to step down and call early elections next year, to allow Mr Putin to return even earlier. Who knows?
What it does show is that Russia is not a country that runs according to any sort of "democratic norms".
"Putin is the most powerful leader in Russia since Stalin," says Mr Fishman.
"What he says has to be done. That's wasn't true of Yeltsin, or Gorbachev, or even Brezhnev."