TheCable

President Vladimir Putin of Russia says he will run for office again in the country’s elections next year.

According to TASS, state-owned local media, Putin spoke on Friday while talking to participants at a Heroes of the Fatherland Day ceremony.

“I am going to run for president of the Russian Federation,” Putin said.

Putin said he had thought long and hard about his future presidency.

“Well, as for now, you are right. It is time to decide,” he told Artem Zhoga, a lieutenant colonel and speaker of the parliament of the Donetsk People’s Republic, who had reportedly asked the Russian leader to seek re-election.

Dmitry Peskov Kremlin spokesperson, had also said many people have urged Putin to run.

Putin’s current term in office expires on May 7, 2024, while Russia’s next presidential election is scheduled for March 17.

The upcoming elections will also mark the first time that residents of the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, annexed by Russia during the conflict, will participate in the country’s presidential elections.

Putin’s tenure is now the longest of any ruler of Russia since Josef Stalin.

If elected, the 71-year-old will extend his 24-year leadership of Russia, albeit with an eight-year stint spent formally as prime minister.

However, opposition politicians have described the forthcoming election as one that threatens democracy, alleging that Putin has turned Russia into a corrupt dictatorship.