Russia's presidential elections are scheduled to be held in March 2024. The country's electoral law provides a two-round election seeing that no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes in the first round. The winner of the election will be inaugurated early in May, beginning their 6-year presidential term.
Reuters reports that Vladimir Putin appears to have made up his mind to run in the March 2024 election. However, he has not yet announced whether he will.
Putin, who took over the presidency from Boris Yeltsin on 31 December 1999, has already served as president for longer than any other Russian leader since Joseph Stalin. He won the 2018 election by gaining 77% of the vote, winning reelection for his second consecutive and fourth overall term in office.
With Putin's United Russia having consolidated control over most institutions in Russia, rigging an election is not a challenge. Nevertheless, that might not even be necessary for the party since Putin himself is still very popular amongst the Russian people according to many sources. Due to the lack of transparency it is hard to know about the legitimacy of his approval ratings and the election but it is certain that if needed, United Russia has the political infrastructure to decide election results.
For Putin, considering that he is a candidate, elections are a "standard procedure": with the support of the state, the state media, and almost no public dissent in the political mainstream, he is bound to win. According to polls, he is already enjoying confidence ratings of 80% from the Russian people.
President Putin at a rally speaking about the 'special military operation'
Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in September that if Putin decided to run:
"No one would be able to take him on."
Most sources support that the decision has been taken and that it will be announced along with the official announcement of the election. The Kremlin has also dismissed reports that 71-year-old Putin is not in good health as misinformation spread by the West. If Putin is to be re-elected, he will be 77 years old by the end of his term.
So far 4 other individuals have announced their candidacy but have not yet submitted documents to the Central Election Commission which according to Russian law, they can do only after the Federation Council officially calls the election. More specifically, out of the 4 current candidates, one is the Captain of the Russian Naval Infantry (aka Russian Marines), Ivan Otrakovski, and the second significant individual is Igor Girgin, the Minister of Defense of the Donetsk People's Republic.