Iran 's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will leave politics when his second term comes to an end , and does not envision a Vladimir Putin-style return to office after sitting out for a term , a German newspaper reported Sunday . `` Eight years are enough , '' the controversial Iranian leader told Germany 's Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung . He 's barred by law from seeking a third consecutive term in 2013 . Russian President Putin was forced out of office by a similar law , spent one term as prime minister , then returned to office this year . But Putin dominates his country 's politics in a way that Ahmadinejad does not , observers say . Ahmadinejad has been in a power struggle with Iran 's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei , and he 's losing , according to experts . `` I think Ahmadinejad underestimated the power of Khamenei , and he overestimated his own power , '' Haleh Esfandiari , director of Middle Eastern studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center , said last month . `` You can step on anybody 's toes , but not on his toe , '' said Esfandiari , who was jailed for more than three months in 2007 during a visit to Iran . She said Ahmadinejad may be left a `` lame duck '' after butting heads with Khamenei . Romney calls Obama weak on Iran . Forces throughout the government have moved to check Ahmadinejad 's efforts to replace top officials and have gone after the president 's closest advisers , analyst Alireza Nader said . `` I think it 's a symptom of the general dissatisfaction with President Ahmadinejad that his powers and movement are being curtailed by the various power centers in Iran , '' said Nader , an expert on Iranian politics at the RAND Corp. , an American think tank .
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is barred from running for a third term in a decade . ` ` of years is enough , '' he told a German journalist . He is on the losing end of a power struggle , outside observers say .