Putin ramps up public activity ahead of election – UK intel
The UK Ministry of Defence said this in an intelligence update posted on the social platform X, Ukrinform reports.
It is noted that last week, the Kremlin announced that President Putin will hold his traditional combined press conference and public phone-in before the end of the year. In 2022, the event was cancelled, probably because Russia had suffered high-profile military set-backs in Ukraine over the preceding weeks.
The UK intelligence believes that planners will almost certainly see the event as an important waypoint in Putin’s anticipated campaign to secure a fifth term in office in the March 2024 presidential elections. He is likely to announce his candidacy before the end of 2023.
It is also noted that on 10 November 2023, Putin visited the Southern Military District headquarters in Rostov on Don, meeting Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
“This is Putin's second visit to the headquarters in four weeks: likely an uptick in his continued efforts to paint himself as the ‘patriotic’ candidate ahead of the election campaign,” the report says.
As reported by Ukrinform, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) earlier suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin will avoid making the war in Ukraine the main theme of his presidential election campaign next year.
