President Vladimir V. Putin mentioned on Friday that he would search one other time period as Russia’s chief at an election scheduled for March 17, Russian state information businesses reported, setting in movement a marketing campaign that’s extensively anticipated to end in one other victory.
With the struggle in Ukraine as a backdrop, Mr. Putin’s announcement was laden with symbolism. In line with Tass, a Russian state information company, he made it throughout a army awards ceremony within the Kremlin, responding to a query posed by Artyom Zhoga, a Russian army officer and official from Donetsk, a metropolis in jap Ukraine.
It was a long-expected announcement, awaited by observers at the very least for the reason that Russian Structure was amended in 2020 to successfully permit Mr. Putin to remain in energy till 2036. He has led Russia as both president or prime minister since 1999.
Whereas there’s little doubt in regards to the end result of the election, the approaching vote carries extra significance as a result of it’s the first presidential election since Mr. Putin, 71, ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Nikolay Petrov, an analyst with the German Institute for Worldwide and Safety Affairs, mentioned, “This isn’t an election, that is the re-election of the identical chief.”
“Mr. Putin is basically competing with himself — with the youthful Putin,” Mr. Petrov added. “It can be crucial for him to indicate that he’s not in a worse place than he was 25 years in the past.”
The invasion of Ukraine was maybe essentially the most consequential resolution Mr. Putin had taken for Russia throughout his 23 years in energy. He additionally ordered an unpopular mobilization marketing campaign final yr, by which lots of of hundreds of males had been known as as much as combat within the struggle.
Up to now, the battle has not figured closely in Mr. Putin’s public appearances within the months working as much as the election — a method that observers say is intentional.
