It was universally expected but now is official: Russia — and the world — will likely have President Vladimir Putin to kick around for at least another six years.
Mr. Putin, who has effectively run Russia since the turn of the century, confirmed Friday he will run in — and almost certainly win overwhelmingly — Russia’s presidential election next year.
Election officials in Moscow confirmed Friday that vote will be held over three days starting March 15 and will include “house-to-house voting” in four new Russian “regions” unilaterally annexed from Ukraine last year.
The vote will be the first since Mr. Putin authorized the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and comes after the onetime KGB agent pushed through constitutional changes in 2020 that allowed him to seek at least two more six-year terms in the Kremlin.
Mr. Putin revealed his plans at a military ceremony at the Kremlin Friday honoring soldiers who fought in Ukraine.
“Times are such that I need to make a decision. I will run for office,” Mr. Putin said when he was asked by a military officer about his plans.
There is expected to be only token opposition to what would be Mr. Putin’s fifth term as president, and his spokesman has been quoted as predicting the incumbent will get 90% of the vote or more next March.
Polls say Mr. Putin remains popular with Russian voters despite the troubled Ukraine campaign, and serious challengers to Mr. Putin’s rule have been sidelined or worse: Anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, a fierce critic of the president, was the target of a failed assassination attempt and is currently serving a lengthy jail term on what are widely seen to be trumped-up charges.
If Mr. Putin manages to stay in power through 2036, he would surpass Soviet dictator Josef Stalin as the longest-serving leader in the Kremlin since the fall of the czars.
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