The date of the next presidential election in Russia was set on Thursday for March 17, 2024, a vote for which President Vladimir Putin has not yet officially announced his candidacy, although his victory is little in doubt.
This election should give the Russian leader, who has methodically eliminated all opposition in Russia in recent years, the opportunity to remain in power until 2030, the year he turns 78.
Senators of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian Parliament, unanimously decided to “set the presidential election for March 17, 2024”, shortly after the second anniversary of the launch of the offensive in Ukraine.
“This decision practically kicks off the presidential campaign,” said the President of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko.
While Russia claimed in September 2022 the annexation of four Ukrainian regions that it partially occupies (Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhia), the presidential election will be “a sort of culmination of reunification”, she said. estimated.
The vote will also be held on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula.
After a difficult year 2022 for Russia, marked by setbacks on the front and a volley of Western sanctions, the country is currently in a better position with the failure of the great Ukrainian summer counter-offensive, the crumbling of European support and American in Kiev and the recovery of the national economy.
Almost all major opponents, such as anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, have been thrown in prison or driven into exile and any criticism of the assault on Ukraine is severely repressed by the courts.
Mme Matvienko thus welcomed a “consolidation like never before” of Russian society around power, despite “difficult external circumstances” and “attempts by the enemy to weaken Russia”. She said she wanted to “prevent the slightest provocation”.
“The only choice”
Since a controversial constitutional reform in 2020, Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 2000, has the theoretical possibility of remaining in the Kremlin until 2036.
Although he has not yet officially announced his candidacy for the presidential election, there is little doubt about his desire to stay in the Kremlin for six more years. The Russian president said in September that he was postponing his decision on this subject until “the end of the year”.
His spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, indicated in mid-November that “the time for the announcement is approaching”, while emphasizing that Mr. Putin had no credible competitor.
This announcement could take place next Thursday, when Vladimir Putin organizes his major annual press conference coupled with a question-and-answer session with the population.
“Our people will make the only right choice possible […] by voting for Russia, for victory,” Valentina Matvienko has already said.
The President of the Electoral Commission, Ella Pamfilova, present at the vote of the Federation Council on Thursday, for her part declared that the presidential election will take place in a “toxic atmosphere” due to the “Russophobia” of the West and ” absurd sanctions.”
The work of the media during this election will in any case be complicated by a tightening of coverage conditions decided by the authorities in November. For example, independent journalists, bloggers and Russian media employees working from abroad should not have access to voting or counting.
The election will also take place in the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, where martial law is currently in force.