Vladimir Putin will run again for president as an independent candidate with a broad base of support, but without a party ticket, Russian news agencies reported this Saturday (16), citing his supporters.
Putin’s nomination was unanimously approved by an initiative group made up of more than 700 politicians and personalities from the sporting and cultural world, which met on Saturday in Moscow, the agencies said.
Putin, who has been in power as president or prime minister for more than two decades, has announced he will seek another six-year term in March next year in an election he could win handily.
Putin will not run as a candidate of the ruling United Russia (UR) party, despite having its full support, but as an independent candidate, Andrei Turchak, a senior UR party official, was quoted as saying by RIA news agency.
“More than 3.5 million party members and supporters will actively participate in the election campaign,” Turchak was quoted as saying, noting that Putin was one of the founders of United Russia.
Sergei Mironov, a senior politician from the Putin-supporting Just Russia party, was also quoted by RIA as saying that Putin would run as an independent and that signatures would be collected in his support.
For Putin, the election is a formality: with the support of the state, state media and almost no dissent from the public, he will certainly win.
Putin’s supporters say he has restored order, national pride and some of the influence Russia lost during the chaos of the Soviet collapse and that his war in Ukraine – something Putin calls a “special military operation” – is justified.
A years-long crackdown on opponents and critics, reinforced by sweeping new laws on “fake news” and “discrediting the army,” has seen opponents of the war sentenced to long prison terms or fleeing abroad as the room for dissent was constantly shrinking.
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Source: CNN Brasil
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