he's not been seen in public since this appearance at the communist party congress in april. congress did elect a number of younger members on to a central committee of the communist party with the military and provincial party bosses figuring strongly. that's where many expect cuba's future leaders to come from. after this generation, there are many more ready to continue fighting for the revolution, this man told me. the revolution continues, this woman said, the old led by example, will be no problem, the changeover is assured, but without a clear of line of succession, any future transition may not be as smooth as when raul castro took over from his brother, fidel. bbc news, havana. >> thanks for watching "newsday." >> plenty more to come. stay with us. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> union bank offers unique insight and expertise in a range of industries. what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news america" was p

no matter what some people say no matter how much this convention they remind me of the communist party congresses of the past the atmosphere of trust was indeed there you're right about that now about those ideas you mention i consider them absolutely irresponsible misleading and even provocative what are you talking about the election campaign has just started let's ask ourselves a simple question what if our people reject us with medvedev and putin what will happen to these decisions by the convention these decisions are merely the party's recommendation to vote for those people that's all the choice is made by the people and these are not me or words it's absolutely true any politician and any political force may lose an election we've seen this happen time and again both in our country and abroad anything can happen what you mean everything has been determined let's imagine for a second that we've reached an agreement with again are these your gana of the deme is it an of ski said again middle and others that they will not run whereas we the big time politicians will that would have really be

party congress -- [inaudible] like myself we felt back in moscow during the days of communism, during party congresses it was all very well orchestrated, it looked quite impressive. but during party congress, communistparty congresses because i guess the party congresses were supposed to be longer would last for several days. they at least would proceed with the world. they would elect their candidates. this time it was, i have to say, i have to give them credit. they were quite efficient and did not want to waste any time. [laughter] prime minister putin came to the boardroom and is said that president medvedev would be leading the united russia party. no vote. some applause. clearly, a lot of people in the whole -- [inaudible] were surprised because they thought it would be president putin who would lead the party to the elections, and they thought that perhaps he would be be -- he who would be leading the party would become the candidate. there was some initial -- [inaudible] stood up, applauded, then president med yesterday e -- medvedev announced because he would be precouped with elections -- [applause] it would be prime minister putin who'd run for presidency. even more applause. no vote, no

it looked quite impressive, but during communist party, because i guess party congresses were supposedto be long, lesser several days. they would proceed with a war, they would elect their candidates. this time it was, i have to say, i have to give them credit. they were quite efficient at did not want to waste any time. prime minister putin came to the podium and said that president medvedev would be leaving the united russia party. no vote. some applause. clearly, a lot of people in the halls were somewhat surprised because they thought it would be president putin who would leave the part to the elections and they thought perhaps he would become a can of the presidency. so there was some initial hesitation in the hall but then everybody applauded, stood up, and president medvedev went to the podium and he announced that because he will be preoccupied with -- [laughter] it would be prime minister putin who would run for presidency. even more applause, no vote, no discussion, everything was arranged. that is what i would call new ambition russian style. unfortunately, for russia, they