Vladimir Putin declared on Friday that he will seek the presidency once more in the March 2024 elections, so securing his rule until at least 2030, during a ceremony held at Russia’s official residence, the Kremlin.
Residents of the seized Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson—annexed by Russia during the conflict—will also be casting their first ballots in the next presidential elections.
The international community had previously denounced the local elections held in these districts, which were arranged by officials with support from Russia, as fraudulent.
Putin’s candidacy has not yet been officially announced by the Kremlin.
In August 1999, Putin was named Russia’s acting prime minister; however, on New Year’s Eve of the same year, then-President Boris Yeltsin abruptly appointed Putin president.
He served as president for two terms of four years each before resigning in 2008 due to a constitutional ban on seeking reelection. He supported Dmitry Medvedev, who assumed the presidency, and Putin was reappointed as prime minister.
But he took back the presidency in 2012, and he hasn’t given it up since. Putin approved legislation in 2021 that permits him to run for two more six-year terms after winning reelection in 2018.
The law’s modifications may allow Putin, 71, to continue in power until 2036, when he will be well into his third decade of reign and in his mid-80s.
In the southern Odesa region of Ukraine, Russia launched a barrage of attack drones with Iranian designs, destroying port facilities and killing one civilian. Fifteen of the eighteen Shahed drones, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, were destroyed. This was the first port strike on the Danube since November 21.
After Russia bombed a thermal power plant close to the front lines, causing major damage as temperatures dipped below freezing, Ukraine urged its citizens to save electricity. The energy ministry said that there was a “temporary shortage of electricity” in the system as a result of the failure of two of the facility’s power units, but it was unable to identify the plant.
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