An initiative group can nominate Putin for the elections

The Federation Council can officially set the date of the presidential elections in Russia at a meeting on December 13. This is reported by the RIA Novosti agency with reference to sources in the Russian Parliament. It is expected that the elections will be scheduled for March 17, 2024.

By law, the Federation Council must set a date between December 8 and 18, 2023. It usually holds its meetings on Wednesdays. December 13 is the only Wednesday in this time range.

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, who, according to the adopted amendments to the Constitution, can run for a fifth term next year, previously said that he would announce his plans after the official election date. A number of mass media, including the Reuters agency, have recently confidently written that Putin has already decided to run for a new term. The Kremlin still claims that the decision has not yet been made.

Commentators draw attention to the fact that Putin’s so-called big press conference is scheduled for December 14 – the first since the beginning of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

On December 17, in turn, the United Russia party congress will be held, which may nominate Putin for the presidency. “Kommersant”, however, writes on Monday that Putin can go to the elections as a self-nominated candidate. For this, according to reports, candidates are already being selected for the initiative group for his nomination. According to the Kommersant sources, director Nikita Mikhalkov, famous pediatrician Leonid Roshal, singer Yaroslav Dronov (Shaman), commander of the battalion “DNR” “Sparta” Artem Zhoga, as well as the first woman cosmonaut and official are named as possible members of the initiative group. the author of the amendment on the nullification of Putin’s terms Valentina Tereshkova. The exact list, however, has not yet been determined. In the 2018 elections, Putin was also nominated by the initiative group, and then signatures were collected in his support.

Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to the Kremlin’s plan, should be “in the background of the campaign”, Meduza sources in the Kremlin emphasized earlier. “Kommersant” sources confirm that Putin’s re-election campaign will be “conservative”, they will try to present Russia as an “island of tranquility” and a stronghold of traditional values.

• Vladimir Putin became president for the first time in 2000 and has four terms left (with a break for 2008-2012). Amendments to the Constitution adopted at the initiative of Putin himself allow him to run for the fifth term. As Reuters points out, Putin has already ruled the country longer than anyone in the last hundred years, with the exception of Joseph Stalin. According to independent observers, elections in Russia are characterized by large-scale violations, from the use of administrative resources to outright falsifications.