Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday added fuel to speculation about who could be Russia’s leader after President Vladimir Putin.
The next president of Russia should be “the same as Putin,” Peskov said in an interview with student news channel MGIMO 360, Russia’s state-run news agency Tass reported. When asked to clarify whether this would be possible, Peskov said: “Or different, but the same.”
Peskov’s comments come as Russia’s 2024 presidential election looms, with the first round scheduled to be held on March 17. Putin is expected to announce his bid for another term soon. Per constitutional changes made prior to the war in Ukraine, the leader may remain in power until 2036. Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Foreign Ministry via email for comment.
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“Putin has not yet announced his intention to run for office. But I sincerely want to believe that he will do it,” the Kremlin spokesman said. “I have no doubt that he will win the elections, I have no doubt that he will continue to be our president. And then we’ll see.”
His remarks also come after a Telegram post by Russian gossip channel General SVR on October 26 included the unfounded claim that Putin suffered a cardiac arrest and died and that Nikolai Patrushev, 72, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, had become the country’s new leader.
The Telegram account, which has nearly half a million subscribers, claims to have insider information from the Kremlin, but it has published misinformation on multiple occasions. The channel’s author is anonymous.
Putin has not publicly named a successor, but Richard Dearlove, who served as head of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1999 to 2004, said in July 2022 that Patrushev, a longtime Putin ally, is the most likely candidate to succeed the Russian president.
Stephen Hall, lecturer in politics at the University of Bath, U.K., previously told Newsweek that Patrushev would make a good candidate to replace Putin because he “has been very good in the past of manipulating what is necessary, and he’s very good at playing all sides off and retaining his power.”
“So it is strongly possible [that he could succeed Putin],” Hall said.
In August, Meduza, an independent Russian media outlet, reported that one of the main criteria for candidates seeking to replace Putin in next year’s presidential election is that they not be under the age of 50.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.