Vladimir Putin has said he will run for president in the March 2024 election, moving the longtime Russian leader a step closer to a fifth term in office.
The announcement on Friday was widely expected and there is little question about the outcome.
Putin has dominated Russia’s political system and the media for the past two decades, jailing prominent opposition politicians, such as Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin, who could challenge him on the ballot. Putin has won previous elections by a landslide, but independent election watchdogs say they were marred by widespread fraud.
Putin’s long-term spokesperson in a previous interview said: “Putin will be re-elected next year with more than 90% of the vote”.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Vladimir Putin has said he will run for president in the March 2024 election, moving the longtime Russian leader a step closer to a fifth term in office.
Putin has dominated Russia’s political system and the media for the past two decades, jailing prominent opposition politicians, such as Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin, who could challenge him on the ballot.
If he remains in power until then, his tenure will surpass even that of Joseph Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union for 29 years, making Putin the longest-serving Moscow leader since the Russian empire.
Putin, who was handed the presidency by Boris Yeltsin on the last day of 1999, has already served as the Russian leader for longer than any other ruler but Stalin, beating even Leonid Brezhnev’s 18-year tenure.
“The elections are meant to legitimise his decision to invade Ukraine,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, based in Moscow.
The pro-war Russian nationalist and Putin critic Igor Girkin has also indicated he wants to run for president but is unlikely to be listed on the ballot given he is awaiting trial on extremism charges.
The original article contains 700 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!