INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
In a choreographed and widely predicted move, President Vladimir Putin announced Friday that he will run for a fifth term in the 2024
presidential election next March.The 71-year-old, who has been in power since 2000, is expected to run virtually unopposed apart from a few
handpicked challengers following the adoption of wartime censorship and the crushing of the liberal opposition.His next six years in office
promise to keep Russia on its path of socially conservative policies and pivot away from the West, while his readiness to wage war on
had different thoughts at different times
But now you are right, this is a time when you have to make a decision
with Russian media regularly reporting on presidential administration meetings about election preparations
This summer, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin would easily win the 2024 election, although Putin himself claimed at the time
that he had not yet decided if he would run
In August, a Kremlin source told the RBC and independent Meduza news websites that the goal is for Putin to win over 80% of the vote,
featuring pro-war musicians and state employees in the stands
In addition, well-known Russians who will join his team of supporters will campaign for him, Kurbagaleeva said.The Russia that Putin rules
over today is drastically different from the country he led 10 years ago.On the eve of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Putin assured Western
had friendly relations with the LGBT people among his staff, some of whom he said had received state honors.Just a few months later, in
March 2014, the Russian army annexed Crimea and launched a hybrid war in eastern Ukraine on Putin's orders
In February 2022, Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, setting off a cascade of domestic political repressions and alienating
and policymaking are built on the confrontation between Russia and the West, Russian political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told The Moscow
with the West.The third and most important pillar is the economy, which has weathered the international sanctions meant to punish the
The sanctions have not worked
around the clock, wages are rising, and expert forecasts say GDP growth by the end of 2023 will be more than 3.5%, higher than that of
demand will plummet, it will take time to rebuild the economy, and sanctions will remain, coalescing in a structural shock, wrote Alexandra
Because recessions after overheating are usually more painful, and so many bad decisions have already been made that there is almost no
when it can say that Russia is united behind him and endorses the war on Ukraine, said Ben Noble, an associate professor at University
continue to attempt to break the deadlock on the frontlines, with the possibility of a major new escalation once the election is over,
