Vladimir Putin has said he will run for president in the March 2024 election, moving the longtime Russian leader a step closer to a fifth term in office.
The announcement on Friday was widely expected and there is little question about the outcome.
Putin has dominated Russia’s political system and the media for the past two decades, jailing prominent opposition politicians, such as Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin, who could challenge him on the ballot. Putin has won previous elections by a landslide, but independent election watchdogs say they were marred by widespread fraud.
Putin’s long-term spokesperson in a previous interview said: “Putin will be re-elected next year with more than 90% of the vote”.
Why not just do like the Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and become a “forever” dictator?
Being “voted” in is a powerful political tool
Xi isn’t a dictator for life, he still has to be re-elected by the politburo each time his term runs out. It’s just that he has purge and stacked everywhere to an extent it seems impossible that he ever wont be re-elected unless something dramatic happens.
One of the Russian politicians calls this whole tendency “acclamation” - Putin is basically doing it to make everyone nod in agreement, saying that they at least don’t mind him being in power; long story short, it a mental gymnastics move to push lies about legitimacy and support around the country and outside so that everyone argues over nothing instead of acting.
And then beatings on top of that.