Russia's Vladimir Putin recently announced that he will run in the 2024 election, ending speculation about whether he will run again. After the ceremony to commemorate the Day of the Heroes of the Fatherland in the Kremlin, Putin agreed to the corresponding request from one of the participants. The participant was Artem Zoga, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the "Donetsk People's Republic", who represented the two separatist regimes supported by Russia in eastern Ukraine.
Putin's decision was fully supported by the ruling "United Russia" party and the opposition "Just Russia" party. The leaders of both parties said that Putin is the guarantor of Russia as a strong, secure sovereign state, and that he has a high degree of prestige and trust both domestically and internationally.
Putin will run as an independent candidate, which means he needs to collect at least 300,000 signatures from his supporters, spread across 40 or more regions. Russian electoral law stipulates that a person must have the support of a group of at least 500 people to run as an independent candidate. On December 16, an initiative group of more than 700 politicians, sports and cultural figures met in Moscow and unanimously endorsed Putin's candidacy as an independent candidate.
Putin's supporters argue that he has restored order, strengthened Russian national pride, and rebuilt some of Russia's influence that it lost in the chaos of the collapse of the Soviet Union. They also believe that Putin's "special military operation" against Ukraine is justified because Ukraine has violated the Minsk agreements and suppressed the rights of ethnic Russians.
Putin's opponents accuse him of abusing power, suppressing dissent, violating Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, leading to a deterioration in Russia's relations with the West and plunging the Russian economy into recession and sanctions. They also questioned whether Putin met the requirements of a constitutional amendment passed in 2020 that required candidates to have never had the citizenship of another country and permanent residency.
Russia's next ** elections are scheduled for March 15-17, 2024, and if no candidate receives more than half of the votes, the second round of elections will be held on April 7. The winner will be sworn in on May 7, 2024, and will remain in office until May 7, 2030. According to the 2020 amendment to the Russian Constitution, the incumbent Putin has zero terms in this election, so he can run again, but according to this constitution, Putin can only be re-elected twice, regardless of whether he is re-elected or not.
Putin's current term as Russia's prime minister, which ends on May 7, 2024, has been the second-longest serving leader in Russia's history, after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, for more than 20 years, either continuously or intermittently. If Putin is re-elected and completes his next term, he will be the longest-serving leader in Russian history.
Autumn and Winter Check-in Challenge