By Dmitry Antonov and Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin will hold his annual news conference and take questions from the public on December 14, the Kremlin said on Thursday, fueling speculation that he would use the occasion to announce that he would aim to remain in power for six years. the power.
As president or prime minister since 1999, Putin has not yet said whether he will run in next year’s March presidential election, but he is expected to do so.
Six sources told Reuters earlier this month that Putin had to run, a move that would keep him in power until at least 2030.
The Kremlin leader felt he had to confront Russia in the most dangerous era in decades, they said, referring to Russia’s war in Ukraine and what Putin presents as Moscow’s existential struggle with the West for a new global order.
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said on Tuesday that Russia’s parliament space, the Federation Council, would officially announce the date of the March presidential election on Dec. 13, a step that marks the start of an open campaign.
Putin’s press conference will take place a day later.
“On December 14, Vladimir Putin will take stock of the year,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reports.
“It will be a program, an assignment of TV channels as before, and it will be a combination of Hotline (live consultation with questions and answers from the audience) and the president’s year-end press conference,” Peskov said. .
Under Russian law, the upper house of parliament must announce the exact date at least 100 days before the vote. Election Day is sometimes estimated to be March 17.
Putin, 71, was appointed president by Boris Yeltsin on the last day of 1999 and is nearing the end of his fourth presidential term.
Only Joseph Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953, has remained in power longer since the fall of the Tsarist Romanov dynasty in 1917.
Diplomats say there are no serious rivals who could threaten Putin’s chances at the polls if he runs again.
Official opinion polls give him an approval rating of around 80% and the former KGB officer can count on the opinion of state and state media.
Years of repression mean there is no significant, organized opposition to their stay in Russia, where politicians and officials stress the need for maximum unity and there is no replacement, at best, in times of war.
(Reporting via Dmitry Antonov; writing by Andrew Osborn; editing by Christina Fincher)
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