- Vladimir Putin has decided to run for Russia’s president again in 2024: Report
- Putin, who was handed the presidency by Boris Yeltsin on the last day of 1999, has already served as president for longer than any other Russian ruler since Josef Stalin
- Opinion polls show that Vladimir Putin enjoys approval ratings of 80% inside Russia.
- Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “The president has not made any statements about this and the campaign has not been officially announced yet.”
- Another source confirmed that a decision had been made and that Putin’s advisers were preparing for Putin’s participation.
- Three other sources said the decision had been made: Putin will run.
- Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny says Putin has led Russia down a strategic dead end towards ruin.
Vladimir Putin has decided to run in the March presidential election, a move that will keep him in power until at least 2030, as the Kremlin chief feels he must steer Russia through the most perilous period in decades, six sources told Reuters.
Putin, who was handed the presidency by Boris Yeltsin on the last day of 1999, has already served as president for longer than any other Russian ruler since Josef Stalin, beating even Leonid Brezhnev’s 18-year tenure.
The sources said that news of Putin’s decision had trickled down and that advisers were now preparing for the campaign and a Putin election. For Putin, who opinion polls show enjoys approval ratings of 80% inside Russia, the election is a formality if he runs: with the support of the state, the state media, and almost no mainstream public dissent, he is certain to win. “The decision has been made – he will run,” said one of the sources who has knowledge of planning.
Another source, also acquainted with the Kremlin’s thinking, confirmed that a decision had been made and that Putin’s advisers were preparing for Putin’s participation. Three other sources said the decision had been made: Putin will run.
A foreign diplomatic source, who also requested anonymity, said Putin made the decision recently and that the announcement would come soon. While many foreign diplomats, spies, and officials say they expect Putin to stay in power for life, there has until now been no specific confirmation of his plans to run in the March 2024 presidential election.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment. Peskov said in September that if Putin decided to run, then no one would be able to compete with him.
While Putin may face no real competition in the election, the former KGB spy faces the most serious set of challenges any Kremlin chief has faced since Mikhail Gorbachev grappled with the crumbling Soviet Union more than three decades ago.
The West casts Putin as a war criminal and a dictator who has led Russia into an imperial-style land grab that has weakened Russia and forged Ukrainian statehood while uniting the West and handing NATO a mission.
Russian weapons production is soaring. Russia forecasts its $2.1 trillion economy will grow faster this year than the European Union. The price of Urals crude oil, the lifeblood of Russia’s economy, averaged $81.52 per barrel in October.
Jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny says Putin has led Russia down a strategic dead end towards ruin, building a brittle system of corrupt sycophants that will ultimately bequeath chaos rather than stability. ”
Several hundred thousand Russian and Ukrainian soldiers are estimated to have been killed or wounded in just over a year and a half of war, far more than the Soviet official casualties in the entire 1979-1989 war in Afghanistan.
(With inputs from agencies)
