Reuters news agency reported on Monday (Nov 6) that Vladimir Putin will run in Russia’s presidential elections in March, citing sources.
If he wins, which he is expected to do, the Russian leader, who turned 71 on October 7, will be the country’s longest-serving leader since the Soviet Union’s creation.
Putin took over for Boris Yeltsin on December 31, 1999. He has already been president for the longest period since Josef Stalin.
Vladimir Putin is expected to win
Though the confirmation has not yet been made official, Reuters claimed that Putin had an approval rating of 80%.
Vladimir Putin is expected to be the clear winner, with no opposition leader garnering that much support and the ostensible support of the state.
“The decision has been made – he will run,” one source familiar with the planning told Reuters.
According to Kommersant, which cited a source, an official announcement will be made within a few weeks.
Another source told Reuters that Putin’s advisers were preparing for his participation and that Putin had made up his mind about running for president.
“The world we look out upon is very dangerous,” one of the sources was quoted as saying.
Official confirmation is still pending
Although there has been no official confirmation from the Kremlin, spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated in September that if Putin decides to run, no one will be able to compete with him.
The claims of Vladimir Putin running for president come at a time when rumors about his alleged health problems have been circulating since the Russia-Ukraine war.
The Kremlin has dismissed allegations that Putin was ill as Western disinformation.
“Everything is fine with him, this is absolutely another fake,” Peskov said on October 24 in response to a question about an unsourced story by a Russian Telegram channel, which was picked up by some Western media, that the President had experienced a significant health crisis.
The spokesman laughed in response to a further question about body doubles and denied that Putin had any.
“This belongs to the category of absurd information hoaxes that a whole series of media discuss with enviable tenacity. This evokes nothing but a smile,” Peskov said.
