Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed today, Friday, that he will run for president again in the March elections. It will be his fifth presidential election after reaching the Kremlin in 2000. A new term would keep him in power at least until 2030 with the option of running again and continuing until 2036. He has already remained president longer than any other head of the Kremlin since Josef Stalin, even surpassing the 18 years of rule of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
The announcement was apparently coincidental. After awarding decorations to some soldiers who fought in the invasion of Ukraine, a lieutenant colonel asked him if he would run again. Putin, who turned 71 in October, confirmed that this would be the case.
The control of the political mechanism is such that no other major party has dared to present a candidate, waiting for Putin to take the step.
The president is experiencing a relatively sweet moment. For now, Russia’s front line has largely repelled Ukraine’s counteroffensive and the country is redirecting its economy to face a long war to subdue Kiev. Russia’s energy revenues have recovered and Putin confidently faces the election after increasing military spending and seeing the US falter in its support for kyiv.
On Thursday, the Federation Council set the next presidential elections for March 17, 2024. The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution to hold voting for three days, from March 15 to 17: en the first time that a president will be elected in that way.
According to available polls, Putin has approval ratings above 80%. Since the war began, his dictatorship has locked up all the dissident leaders who did not flee in time and has forced the closure or exile of the remaining independent media outlets. Critical NGOs are persecuted and ultra-conservative discourse is becoming the state ideology. Meanwhile, rumors persist that the Kremlin is preparing to announce a new round of recruitment among other unpopular measures after the elections.
Dissident leader Alexei Navalny’s team has proposed voting for any candidate other than Putin. A group of his followers managed to hang banners in Russian cities leading to the website “Russia without Putin”, ads that were soon removed. Navalny’s team said that the next elections will be “a parody of the electoral procedure” and its results. endings “will, as usual, be falsified.”
