Kremlin considers whom to choose as Putin's election opponent so he does not look old

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration is choosing opponents for Putin in the 2024 presidential election and has decided that it will not register candidates under 50 so that Putin does not look like an old man.

Source: Meduza, a Latvia-based Russian independent news outlet

Quote: "The political bloc of the Russian presidential administration, headed by Sergei Kirienko, has decided on ‘sparring partners’ who will ‘compete’ with Vladimir Putin in the 2024 presidential election.

As two media sources close to the Kremlin said, one of the main criteria for their selection was age. There should be no politicians under the age of 50 among the registered candidates.

According to Russian presidential administration officials, the presence of such candidates on the ballot may make Russians think that 70-year-old Putin is ‘no longer the man who came to power with a firm hand’."

Details: Putin's administration expects representatives of three parliamentary parties to run in the election: the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) and the New People Party (Sergei Mironov, the leader of A Just Russia, has announced that his party would not nominate a candidate and would support Vladimir Putin).

The Kremlin sees Gennadiy Zyuganov as a candidate from the Communist Party. In the 2008 presidential election, Zyuganov received 17%, and 18% in 2012.

Such stability in ratings is important to the Kremlin, as it is planned that Putin will score a "record result" in the upcoming elections.

Putin is expected to receive more than 80% of the vote with a turnout of more than 70%.

According to the Kremlin's plan, Leonid Slutsky, the Liberal Democratic Party's leader, should be a candidate. As a source close to Putin's administration said, Slutsky wants to run for office himself "because he loves PR".

A source close to the LDPR leadership confirmed this information and added that Slutsky "likes to be seen in public" and intends to "raise his personal popularity".

The New People candidate is more complicated. The Kremlin would like to see the party's chairman, businessman Alexei Nechaev, run.

However, this plan has not yet been agreed upon with Nechaev himself. According to two Medusa sources close to the Kremlin, he understands that "he’ll not be allowed to win a lot of votes, and he doesn’t want to make do with a few crumbs from the table and be a Lyosha with just 2% [possibly a reference to Alexei Navalny – ed.]".

It is reported that Nechaev is proposing Vladislav Davankov, Deputy Speaker of the State Duma [the lower chamber of the Russian parliament – ed.], who is currently running for mayor of Moscow, but this candidate does not suit the Putin administration.

The fact is that Davankov is 39 years old, loves PR and can speak well in public.

The Putin administration believes that a young and active candidate could make voters think about the president's age, and this would be an unfavourable contrast.

The Putin administration is thinking about the outlook in a couple of years’ time when people will think that Putin is certainly good, but it is time for someone younger to come in.

It is also reported that Russian officials have begun to treat Putin differently since his 70th birthday.

While media sources used to refer to Putin as "the first", "the chief", "the supreme" or "dad", now they most often refer to him as "granddad".

One of the sources close to the Kremlin, when asked about the reasons for this, said: "Well, a grandfather is a grandfather; it's not negative. He is of that age".

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