Putin secures fifth term as Russia’s president – set to extend 24-year reign

President Vladimir Putin is leading the 2024 Russian presidential election with a landslide.

According to Reuters, exit polls showed that Putin is leading with 88 percent of the votes to trounce Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party, who trails with four per cent.

Vladislav Davankov, candidate of the New People’s Party, scored 3.85 percent, while Leonid Slutsky of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) trailed with just 3.1 percent.

Putin, who has been in power since 2000, is set to secure another six-year term that would enable him to become Russia’s longest-serving leader for more than 200 years.

After his second tenure ended in 2008, he served as prime minister for another four years before becoming president again in 2012. 

Subsequently, the president drafted a constitutional amendment that extended the presidential term from four to six years in Russia.