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The Russian election is certain to be won by Vladimir Putin. Photo/Reuters
MOSCOW – Russia will hold presidential elections on March 15-17 that President Vladimir Putin will certainly win, barring any unforeseen developments. Thus, the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin will get another six years in office.
4 Russian Presidential Election Candidates, Number 1 Guaranteed to Win
1. Vladimir Putin
Photo/Reuters
According to Reuters, responsible for all state affairs, incumbent Vladimir Putin, 71, is expected to easily achieve a landslide victory and another six years in office.
Reviled by Kremlin critics as an autocratic war criminal who rules by fear, polls at home show he is supported by a majority of Russians who see him as the tough leader needed to stand up to what they see as a meddling and expansionist West.
A state pollster said in February that its research showed more than 75% of Russians were ready to vote for Putin.
A former KGB lieutenant colonel, Putin was appointed acting president on the last day of 1999 by Boris Yeltsin. He then served two four-year terms from 2000-2008 before becoming prime minister from 2008-2012. He returned to office in 2012 after his presidential term was extended to six years, and returned to office in 2018.
In 2020, constitutional changes were made that would allow Putin to serve two more six-year terms starting in 2024. That means he can remain in office. in power until 2036.
2. Nikolai Kharitonov
Photo/actual
A 75-year-old member of Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, Kharitonov is the official candidate of the Communist Party, whose candidates have finished second to Putin in every election since 2000. Kharitonov, a Siberian, ran previously in 2004 and won 13.8% of the vote compared to Putin's 71.91%.
A pollster in the state said in February that its research showed that about 4% of Russians were ready to vote for him. State news agency TASS quoted him as saying he would not find fault with the Kremlin leader.
“He (Putin) is responsible for his own work cycle, why should I criticize him?” it quoted him as saying. Kharitonov supports what Putin calls Russia's special military operations in Ukraine, but has in the past opposed some of the domestic policies of the pro-Putin United Russia party. He has the support of Gennady Zyuganov, a 79-year-old veteran Communist Party leader.
3. Leonid Slutsky
Photo/Reuters