If Putin doesn’t seek reelection, who would run to succeed him?
Vladimir Putin isn’t quite the man he used to be — more than a decade has passed since the Russian president engaged in public stunts to boast of his vigor by hugging a polar bear or riding a horse barechested in the mountains. The war in Ukraine has further dented that strongman image.
Putin still is expected to seek another term when Russia stages presidential elections in March. In fact, he has pushed through changes in the constitution to allow him to run for two more six-year terms.
But 71 is an age when death or serious illness are hardly distant concerns for the man who has ruled Russia for 24 years. If Putin is not on the ballot for some reason, it’s not clear who might take his place.
At the national level, Russia’s political system is hermetic. There are no primary elections.
In Putin’s absence, the loyalist United Russia party could put forth a candidate, although there’s no fixed procedure for it to choose one. Officially, Putin ran in 2018 as an independent, a precedent adding uncertainty to how a replacement could emerge.
Some potential contenders if Putin isn’t in the election:
TALLINN, ESTONIA »
to the new position of deputy head of the national security council.
Although that post was low-visibility and often seen as a sinecure, Medvedev’s prominence soared last year when he abandoned his normally mild persona and became one of the most vehement defenders of the war in Ukraine.
Medvedev could be tarnished by the perception he was too accommodating to the United States as president during Barack Obama’s administration’s “reset” initiative, as well as a high-profile expose alleging corruption and garishly lavish living. old trolleys, new commuter rail lines reduced the city’s notorious traffic jams and once-ragged parks were tidied up and enhanced.