MOSCOW:
While the focus is on whether incumbent Vladimir Putin contests again, more important is whether there is any alternative, and more significantly, will some other leader’s emergence mean a major change in policies.

Under the law, the Russian presidential elections are to take place in mid-March. The Federation Council, the upper house of the Parliament, is expected to announce the date 90 to 100 days before the elections — approximately between December 8 and 18.

These will be the first polls since the 2020 constitutional amendment, which set a limit of two presidential terms – but not retrospectively, thus allowing Putin to contest in 2024, and even 2030.

The possibility of the first proviso in these elections seems.