Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that he had not decided yet whether to run for a new six-year term in the Kremlin when his current term ends in 2024.
Putin has been in power as president or prime minister since the turn of the century, making him the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin. Russia passed reforms last year allowing him to run for two more six-year terms without which he would have to step down in 2024.
The Kremlin leader suggested that the possibility of him running for president again had stopped the political system being undermined, he said at an investment forum in Moscow.
He said that he said that the existence of this right to run is already stabilising the domestic political situation, whether or not I do this is yet to be decided.
Some analysts believe that Putin could have become a lame duck president if he had not had the option of running again in 2024.
The issue is highly sensitive for the Kremlin. It denounced as absurd meddling in a resolution proposed by U.S. lawmakers to stop recognising Putin as president if he stays in power after 2024.