Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted on Tuesday that he is running for re-election in the 2024 presidential election during his State of the Nation speech in parliament.
“I want to emphasize that both local and regional elections in September this year and presidential elections in 2024 will be held in strict accordance with the law and in compliance with all constitutional democratic procedures,” Putin said.
Addressing both chambers of parliament for the first time in nearly two years, Putin referred to the controversial 2020 constitutional reform that will allow him to run for re-election in 2024 and 2030.
Putin, 70, came to power in 2000, was re-elected in 2004, served as prime minister for four years, returned to the Kremlin in 2012 and was re-elected again in 2018.
Some analysts point out that in the event of a defeat in the “military campaign” in Ukraine or the declaration of martial law, the presidential elections could be postponed indefinitely.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has been imprisoned for several years, assured on Monday that Russia is suffering a “military defeat” in Ukraine and presented a political program for a post-war period without Putin.
Navalny, who is serving nine years in prison, argued at the polls that Putin’s “dictatorship” must be “dismantled”.
The day chosen for the speech coincides with the date on which Vladimir Putin signed the recognition of the independence of the breakaway republics of Lugansk and Donetsk, in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
The day chosen by the Russian president to deliver his speech marks the first anniversary of the Russian military’s “peacekeeping” commitment to pro-Russian separatist areas in eastern Ukraine, a prelude to the start of the military offensive against Ukraine that would take place three days later.
Source: DN
