The global media have predicted that he will win by a huge margin, if he contests the election. The Russian people, too, have expressed the same view. However, rumours that Vladimir Putin is ready to quit as Russian president have surfaced recently. (Most probably) that’s why the strongman is yet to include his name in the list of presidential candidates.
A British online news site reported a couple of days ago that Putin decided to quit politics (after ruling Russia for 14 long years) mainly because of his ‘decreasing’ popularity. According to the British site, the Russian president realises that he is not popular in his country anymore. So, he is yet to start campaigning for the upcoming Presidential Election.
So far, Kremlin has maintained silence over the issue. A senior Russian official said on Sunday that the president, himself, would make an announcement in this regard, if he had any such plan. At the same time, the official – who wished to remain anonymous – admitted that Putin’s silence encouraged the British media to spread ‘rumours’.

Meanwhile, another top Russian official said that the president’s popularity has decreased in recent times due to the economic crisis. Although Putin has tackled the situation well, the opposition parties have accused many Kremlin officials of corruption.
Very recently, Ksenia Anatolyevna Sobchak – a Russian TV anchor, journalist, socialite and actress – announced that she would run in the Presidential Election next year. Ksenia, the daughter of President Putin’s mentor Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak, said: “My name is Ksenia Sobchak, I’m 36 years old. And like any other citizen of Russia, I now have the right to run for the presidency. I decided to exercise that right.” She further said: “Well, at least because I’m against everyone who usually uses this right.”

Ksenia Anatolyevna Sobchak

The Russian Presidential Election will take place on March 18, 2018. As per the rules, the list of presidential candidates will be published in mid-December. Then, the campaign will begin. So far, Putin has kept himself away from all this.
According to sources close to Kremlin, Putin had made a final decision in October-November 2016 and asked his officials to start making preparations for the change. It was decided that the Constitution would be amended to create a new post (vice president). Putin actually wanted the president, vice president and the politburo to share the presidential powers.
However, the Russian strongman changed his mind after the US Presidential Election. Donald Trump’s ‘unexpected’ victory and the alleged involvement of Russia in the American election (and the Syrian war) changed the calculus and Putin once again concentrated on foreign policy.

Kremlin insiders believe the internal political equation will change, if Putin quits. Valery Solovei, a Professor of the Moscow State Institute for International Relations, opines that Russia will have to face a serious political crisis in the absence of Putin. He said: “There can be no second Putin. When the man goes, the system goes. All the informal communications, the glue that holds things together, that will go too.” Solovei stressed: “The last time I felt like this was at the end of the Soviet Union. And, worryingly, people who were around at the time are telling me they feel exactly the same.”
The global community will have to wait till December to know Putin’s actual game plan.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das