Vladimir Putin.Photo: ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty
Vladimir Putinis projected to have easily won a fifth term as Russian president, putting him on track to have the role until at least 2030, according to multiple outlets.
Shortly after the polls closed, the head of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) said Putin had secured 87.9% of the vote, with 24.4% of the count in, perCNN.
He is the longest-serving Kremlin leader since dictator Josef Stalin, who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953.
The 71-year-old autocrat’s reelection comes amid his ongoinginvasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
U.S. officials said in August that the total number of Ukrainian and Russian troops killed or wounded since the war began was nearing 500,000 and according to the nonprofit group Save the Children, an average of 42 civilians have been killed or injured daily in thetwo years of war.
Putin previously worked as a foreign intelligence officer for the Russian spy agency KGB, ultimately turning to politics in 1991.
Vladimir Putin.Florian Gaertner/Photothek via Getty
At that time, Russia’s constitution dictated that no president could serve more than two consecutive, four-year terms, meaning he would have to leave the role in 2008.
But upon the end of his two terms, Putin endorsed Dmitry Medvedev for president. Once Medvedev was elected, he agreed to install Putin as prime minister, allowing him to continue pulling strings within the Kremlin despite not having the top title.
Medvedev also shepherded the first major amendments to Russia’s constitution — among them, one that changed the length of presidential terms from four to six years, effective in 2012. That same year, Putin would reclaim the seat, and was reelected in 2018.
He would have termed out in 2024, but in 2020, Russia voted to again amend its constitution, expanding presidential term limits once more and making it possible for Putin to legally remain in power as the country’s leader until 2036.
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In recent years, the invasion of Ukraine has been both his focus and, some critics say, his undoing, as the war drags into its third year and has triggered increasingly severe sanctions against Russia.
source: people.com
