By declaring his candidacy for the March 2019 presidential election, which he is very expected to win, Vladimir Putin moved on Friday to extend his oppressive and uncompromising hold on power for at least another six years, according to reports from official media.
Despite initiating an incredibly expensive war in Ukraine that has claimed thousands of lives, Putin continues to have widespread popularity even after over 25 years in office. He has also incited several assaults inside Russia, including one on the Kremlin, and damaged the country’s reputation for being unbeatable.
Mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s brief uprising in June sparked widespread concerns that Putin might be losing control, but he came out of it unscathed, and the fact that Prigozhin died in an unexplained plane crash two months later served to confirm the idea that Putin was still in complete control.
Putin declared his intention to run for president on March 17 during a Kremlin award event, as reported by Russian news outlets Tass and RIA Novosti.
About 80% of people think well of his performance, according to the Levada Center, an independent pollster. That support may be selfless or it may be an expression of deference to a leader whose persecution of any opposition has made it dangerous to voice even moderate criticism.
Putin is predicted to encounter little resistance on the vote, whether as a result of genuine or forced backing.
The 71-year-old Putin has twice used his influence to change the constitution, giving him the ability to potentially hold onto power until he is in his mid-80s. Currently holding the longest tenure as the head of the Kremlin since Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
Term limitations forced him to resign down in 2008 to become prime minister, although he continued to be Russia’s motivator. Then, he pushed through a package of reforms three years ago that reset the clock for two consecutive elections starting in 2024, extending the length of presidential mandates from four to six years.
Dmitry Oreshkin, a political analyst and lecturer at the Free University of Riga in Latvia, told The Associated Press earlier this year that “he is afraid to give up power.”
Putin could have been more worried about losing power at the time of the reforms that gave him two more terms since, according to Levada polls, his support rating was much lower, hovering around 60%.
Some commentators believe that Putin’s conflict with Ukraine in February 2022 may have been sparked mostly by his decline in popularity.
“This war with Ukraine was required as a binding agent. As a former speechwriter for Putin who now resides in Israel, analyst Abbas Gallyamov said, “He needed to consolidate his power.”
