Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that he will run in the country’s national presidential elections of 2024, virtually guaranteeing that he will continue to hold power given that he has systematically eliminated any significant domestic political opposition through violent crackdowns and imprisonment.
If he wins another term as expected, Putin will hold power until at least 2030.
The 71-year-old made the expected announcement on Friday at a military awards ceremony in response to an official’s query, state media agency Tass reported.
“I won’t hide, I had different thoughts in different times,” Putin said. “But now you are right, the time is such when a decision needs to be made. I will run for president of Russia.”
Putin has been in power for 24 years, first as prime minister and now as president. The president is expected to secure a victory in the March 17 election, which will be the first election since Putin’s Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine. Putin remains popular domestically, the state news agency claims, despite the ongoing battle; 78.5 percent of Russians supposedly trust him.
“This is not an election, this is the re-election of the same leader. Mr. Putin is essentially competing with himself — with the younger Putin,” Nikolay Petrov, a German Institute for International and Security Affairs analyst, told the New York Times. “It is important for him to show that he is not in a worse place than he was 25 years ago.”
Although global and internal criticisms have riddled Putin’s presidency since his Ukraine invasion in February 2022, Putin has nonetheless continued his onslaught in anticipation of a fifth term. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group, staged a failed coup against Putin this summer. Prigozhin was assassinated weeks later.
A 2020 Kremlin-sponsored constitutional referendum reset Putin’s term count and allows him to remain in power until 2036. Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny encouraged Russians to vote “for any other candidate” on Thursday.
“For Putin, this election is a referendum on the approval of his actions,” Navalny said. “A referendum on the approval of war. Let us thwart his plans and make sure that on March 17 no one cares about the falsified result, but that all of Russia has seen and understood it: the will of the majority is that Putin has to leave.”