Putin says he will seek new term in 2018

President Vladimir Putin yesterday announced that he would seek re-election in March 2018, a contest opinion polls show he will win comfortably, setting the stage for him to extend his dominance of Russia's political landscape into a third decade.

Putin, 65, has been in power, either as president or prime minister, since 2000. If he wins what would be a fourth presidential term in March, he would be eligible to serve another six years until 2024, when he turns 72.

"I will put forward my candidacy for the post of president of the Russian Federation," Putin told an audience of workers at a car-making factory in the Volga river city of Nizhny Novgorod.

"There's no better place or opportunity to put my candidacy forward. I'm sure that everything will work out for us."

Putin is lauded by allies as a father of the nation figure who has restored national pride and expanded Moscow's global clout with interventions in Syria and Ukraine. His critics accuse him of overseeing a corrupt authoritarian system.

The challenge for Putin is not other candidates -- nobody looks capable of unseating him. Instead, his toughest task will be to mobilise an electorate showing signs of apathy to ensure a high turnout which in the tightly-controlled limits of the Russian political system is seen to confer legitimacy.