[ad_1]
Russian president Vladimir Putin said that he will only comment on whether he will run for re-election in 2024 after the ballot is officially announced later this year. The Russian leader has led the country since the turn of the century, winning four presidential elections and briefly serving as prime minister as well while political opposition in the country has become virtually non-existent.
“According to the law, parliament must make a decision at the end of the year,” Vladimir Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in the Pacific port of Vladivostok, adding, “When the elections are announced, when the date is set, then we will talk about it.”
Presidential elections in Russia are officially set by the parliament. The polls are held every six years after the term limit was lengthened from four years earlier. There may be a second round if no candidate is able to secure more than 50 percent of the vote, but in practice this has never happened as Vladimir Putin has won elections by large margins.
Rights groups say national elections in Russia have largely become a rubber stamp for Putin and the ruling party as dozens of prominent Russian dissidents have left the country or have been jailed, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He is serving a prison sentence on a range of charges and was handed a new, 19-year prison sentence on extremism charges in August.
Earlier Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian president did not currently face any competition.
“It is obvious, perhaps, that no one can really compete with him in our country at the current stage,” he said.
