Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet decided whether or not he will run for a fifth presidential term in 2024, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday.
The official was commenting on a report by the Russian business daily Kommersant, which said that the president could run in March. No other potential candidate has so far announced a bid.
“No decision on this issue has been taken yet,” Peskov said, adding that it “was understandably drawing more attention from political scientists and experts.”
When asked at the Eastern Economic Forum in September whether or not he would seek another term, the Russian leader responded that he would decide once the date of the next election was set.
Under Russian laws, the presidential election should take place at some point in mid-March, but the Federation Council – the upper house of the Russian parliament – isn’t expected to announce the exact date of the vote until December.
Putin has been elected president four times, holding the post between 2000 and 2008 and since 2012. He is eligible to run for two more terms, in 2024 and 2030, due to amendments introduced to the Russian constitution following a referendum in 2020.
In early October, the head of Russia’s Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, proposed skipping next year’s presidential elections due to the ongoing conflict with Ukraine. The Chechen leader praised Putin’s leadership and called him the only person “able to defend our country today.”
The Kremlin, however, said that the elections would be held according to the existing law. Peskov described Putin as the nation’s leading politician, adding that other candidates might struggle to successfully compete with him.