Many reports state that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to run for “re-election” in 2024.
According to business magazine Kommersant, Putin has been president since 2012 and has started looking for surrogates for his 2024 campaign launch.
When Putin declares his candidacy later this year, the “initiative group” will work together to mobilize support for him.
Putin has declared that he will publicly announce his presidential run after the December presidential election called by the Russian parliament. He’s probably going to run as an independent.
Read: 2024 Watch: Another presidential election poll shows Trump leading Biden.
After winning reelection in 2018, Putin left the United Russia Party, which ruled the nation he previously belonged to when he was elected in 2012.
In recent months, the Kremlin has openly disregarded elections, appearing to recognize the country’s dubious international credibility of its democratic institutions.
On August 8, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state media outlet RBK, “Elections are what a democracy demands, and Putin himself decided to hold them, but theoretically, they don’t even have to be held.” “Because it is obvious that Putin will be elected,” he continued. That is entirely my personal viewpoint.”
Peskov told RBK he was trying to get clarification on a statement he had made to The New York Times on August 6th, which he said had been misquoted.
Peskov told the New York Times, “Our presidential election is not really democracy; it is costly bureaucracy,” in the story that was released on August 6. “Mr. Putin will be re-elected next year with more than 90 percent of the vote.”
More recently, in October, Peskov assured Russian media outlets that there is no rival to Putin for the upcoming presidential election in 2019.
“We have repeatedly said that President Putin is undoubtedly the number-one politician and statesman in our country,” Peskov added.
He said, “In my personal opinion […] he has no rivals at the moment and cannot have any in the Russian Federation.”