“I will run for the post of President of the Russian Federation,” said Putin, quoted by the Russian agency TASS. “I understand that there is currently no other option,” he said, according to images broadcast by the state television channel Rossiya-24, cited by the French agency AFP.
The announcement was made on the sidelines of a decoration ceremony for soldiers who fought in Ukraine, held at the Kremlin (Russian presidency), in Moscow, on the occasion of Heroes of the Fatherland Day.
During the ceremony, the speaker of the parliament of the Donetsk People’s Republic (annexed to Ukraine), Artem Zhoga, father of one of the soldiers, questioned Putin about plans for the presidential elections.
Putin responded that he will run for a fifth term in the Kremlin. If he wins, he will hold the position of head of state for another six years, until 2030, according to the Russian agency TASS. At 71 years old, Putin has been in power since 2000.
Public confirmation
The Russian leader is expected to publicly confirm his candidacy on December 14, during the annual press conference and the Citizen’s Hotline, the first since 2021, according to the Spanish agency EFE.
“Our President has never run away from his responsibilities and will never run away. Today, he proved it once again”, reacted the president of the Upper House of Parliament, on social media, quoted by AFP.
No critic of the Kremlin should be allowed to run for election, while the authorities have been repressing the opposition for years. The repression accelerated with the offensive in Ukraine, launched by the Russian army on February 24, 2022.
Controversial reform
A controversial 2020 constitutional reform allows Putin to serve two more terms of six years each, until 2036, when he will be 84 years old.
According to a survey by the Russian company Public Opinion Fund, 70% of Russians support Putin’s candidacy and only 8% want to see him removed from politics.
Also 78.5% of Russians trust Putin and 75.8% approve of his leadership of the state, according to data cited by EFE.
The Central Election Commission announced today that Russians will vote for three days, from March 15 to 17, 2024, despite criticism from the opposition, which considers that the practice encourages fraud.
By Lusa