Putin to seek another term as Prez, says ‘I will not hide’

Moscow, December 8

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday told soldiers who had fought in the Ukraine war that he would run for president again in the March 15-17, 2024, election, a move that will allow the former KGB spy to stay in power until at least 2030.

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 ruler of Russia since Josef Stalin, beating even Leonid Brezhnev’s 18-year tenure.

After Putin awarded the Ukraine war veterans with Russia’s highest military honour, the Hero of Russia gold star, Artyom Zhoga, a lieutenant colonel born in Soviet-era Ukraine who fights for Russia, asked the president to run again.

“I will not hide that I have had different thoughts at different times but it is now time to make a decision,” Putin told Zhoga and the other decorated soldiers. “I understand that there is no other way.”

“I will run for the post of president,” Putin was shown in television footage saying in the gilded Georgievsky Hall, part of the Grand Kremlin Palace.

Zhoga told reporters afterwards that he was very glad Putin had assented to the request, adding that all of Russia would support the decision.

Reuters reported last month that Putin had decided to run. For Putin, 71, the election is a formality: with the support of the state, the state-run media and almost no mainstream public dissent, he is certain to win.

He has no discernable successor. — Reuters

24 years in power

December 31, 1999 President Boris Yeltsin announces his resignation and makes Putin, the prime minister he appointed four months earlier, the acting president.

May 7, 2000 After winning election with about 53 per cent of the vote, Putin is inaugurated for his first four-year term.

March 14, 2004 He is elected to a second presidential term.

May 8, 2008 Barred by the constitution from running for a third consecutive term, Putin is appointed prime minister by new President Dmitry Medvedev but effectively remains Russia’s political leader.

March 4, 2012 He is elected to a new presidential term, which is now six years long under constitutional changes he engineered.

July 1, 2020 A referendum approves constitutional changes proposed by Putin, which allow him to run for two more terms starting in 2024.

February 24, 2022 The invasion of Ukraine begins, which Putin characterises as a “special military operation” needed for Russia’s security. AP