Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that he will make a decision on whether to seek for re-election in 2024 after the ballot is officially released later this year.
Putin has ruled Russia since the turn of the century, winning four presidential elections and briefly serving as prime minister under a system in which political opposition has essentially disappeared.
“According to the law, parliament must make a decision at the end of the year,” Putin told the audience at the Eastern Economic Forum in the Pacific port of Vladivostok.
“When the elections are announced, when the date is set, then we will talk about it,” he added.
In Russia, presidential elections are legally set by parliament and held every six years, after the term limit was increased from four to six years.
They may enter a second round if no contender receives more than 50% of the vote, but this has never happened in fact, with Putin prevailing by vast percentages.
According to rights groups, Russia’s national elections have basically become a rubber stamp for Putin and the ruling party.
Several famous Russian dissidents have fled or been imprisoned, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is serving a prison sentence on a variety of crimes.
In August, Navalny was handed a new, 19-year prison sentence on extremism charges.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters this week that the president did not currently face any competition.
“It is obvious, perhaps, that no one can really compete with him in our country at the current stage,” he said.