Vladimir Putin’s re-election would keep him in office until 2030 and add up to a 30-year stint as the most powerful man in the country © Valeriy Sharifulin/POOL/AFP/Getty Images
Published December 9, 2023
As was long anticipated, Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a formal announcement saying he’s seeking re-election in 2024 – a vote that will be held between March 15 and March 17, 2024. The winner will be inaugurated in early May. Assuming a Putin victory, it would be his fifth term as head of state, and this would put him in office until 2030, after already approaching nearly a quarter-century in power.
Interestingly, the Kremlin cast Putin’s declaration as part of “spontaneous” remarks which followed an award ceremony honoring war veterans…
“I won’t hide it from you — I had various thoughts about it over time, but now, you’re right, it’s necessary to make a decision,” Putin said in a video released following the event. “I will run for president of the Russian Federation.”
Russian state media is already previewing that newly annexed territories of the Donbas would vote in the election:
The Russian leader made his remarks at a ceremony where he awarded Hero of Russia medals to servicemen who had taken part in the special military operation against Ukraine. Hero of the Donetsk People’s Republic Artyom Zhoga, who was recently named speaker of the Russian federal subject’s parliament, asked if he would run in 2024 and he replied in the affirmative.
The footage from the ceremony shows Zhoga shaking hands with Putin and telling him that the entire Donbass would like him to participate in the election. “Thanks to your actions… we became free, we got the opportunity to choose… You are our president… We are your team, we need you, Russia needs you,” he said.
The legal path was paved for this expected fifth term when in 2020 the Russian population voted to overwhelmingly approve an overhaul to the national constitution. Assuming he would again win by a landslide, this means that 71-year old Putin could theoretically stay in power until even 2036 if he wanted to go that far (assuming two more back-to-back terms). He would be 83-years old that year.
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SOURCE: www.zerohedge.com
RELATED: ‘Humdinger of a horse race’: W.House mocks Putin reelection bid
Published December 8, 2023
The White House mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Friday that he would run for reelection in 2024, suggesting that the result was highly unlikely to be in doubt.
“Well, that’s going to be one humdinger of a horse race, isn’t it?” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked about Putin’s bid to extend his decades-long grip on power.
“That’s all I’ve got to say on that.”
The 71-year-old Putin has led Russia since the turn of the century, winning four presidential ballots and briefly serving as prime minister in a system where opposition has become virtually nonexistent.
US President Joe Biden, 81, who faces an uphill task in his own reelection battle next year, said earlier this week that Putin had to be stopped as the Kremlin leader pushes on with his invasion of Ukraine.
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SOURCE: www.breitbart.com
RELATED: Putin hasn’t discussed his re-election bid with foreign leaders — Kremlin spokesman
Published December 8, 2023
Vladimir Putin is running for president for the fifth time
MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has not discussed his intention to seek re-election in 2024 with his foreign counterparts, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS.
“No,” Peskov said, when asked whether Putin had spoken to any foreign leaders about the move during his recent numerous communications and whether he had told them about his plans to run for re-election.
Earlier today, Putin agreed to run for president in the March 2024 election. He was asked to do so by the Donetsk People’s Republic parliament speaker, Artyom Zhoga, when Putin was meeting with participants in a Kremlin ceremony honoring Heroes of the Fatherland Day. Zhoga later recounted the conversation to reporters.
Putin’s presidency
Putin is running for president for the fifth time. If he wins, he will serve as head of state for another six years, until 2030.
Putin was first elected to the nation’s highest office in 2000 for a four-year term. Following the resignation of Russia’s first President Boris Yeltsin on December 31, 1999, Putin was appointed acting president. On January 12, 2000, a group of people nominated him as a candidate for early presidential elections, and the next day Putin agreed to take part, announcing the decision in his home town of St. Petersburg, in a speech at St. Petersburg State University.
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SOURCE: www.taas.com
