Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he will run for president in the March 4 elections in order to continue working to ensure the sovereignty of Russia and the prosperity of its nationals for years ahead.
Putin, who held the presidential post in 2000-2008, is considered the most likely candidate to win the presidential election in March. However, analysts say his declining popularity could see him forced into a runoff.
The premier praised the team he had led during the two previous presidential terms and said it “led Russia out of… a civil war, broke the backbone of terrorism, restored the country’s territorial integrity and constitutional order, revived the economy and ensured one of the world’s highest economic growth rates.”
“Our task for the years ahead is to remove everything that prevents us from going forward from the path of national development,” Putin said in an article published on his election website and in the Izvestiya daily.
The task will also be to “complete the establishment in Russia of such a political system, such a structure of social guarantees and protection for citizens, such an economic model that will together form a single, live, constantly developing and at the same time stable and sound state organism,” he said.
The organism, Putin said, will be used to “guarantee Russia’s sovereignty and the prosperity of our great power’s nationals for decades ahead, to defend justice and the dignity of each person, the truth and confidence in the relations between the state and society.”
Putin-led United Russia party won the December 4 parliamentary elections but critics claimed the vote had been slanted in favor of United Russia. The authorities admitted that minor violations had occurred during the vote and pledged to probe them, but denied claims that the irregularities affected the vote’s results.
Vote rigging allegations led to the largest anti-government protests for almost two decades, with demonstrators demanding a rerun and the dismissal of Vladimir Churov, the head of the Central Election Commission, dubbed “the wizard” after December's election to the State Duma.
