--- description: Vladimir Putin said he’ll consider running for a fifth term, arguing that the hunt for a successor risks paralyzing Russia’s government title: Vladimir Putin Signals He May Seek to Extend His Rule in 2024 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted08a305301be467/698a0f8701168228b997f886/vladimir_putin_fifth_term_russia.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [russia](/tag/russia/) ## russia Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Vladimir Putin Signals He May Seek to Extend His Rule in 2024 by [Olga Tanas and Henry Meyer / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Olga Tanas and Henry Meyer / Bloomberg Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 22, 2020 9:12 AM CUT  Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with health workers via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on June 20, 2020. Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with health workers via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on June 20, 2020.ALEXEY NIKOLSKY—SPUTNIK/AFP/Getty Images by [Olga Tanas and Henry Meyer / Bloomberg](/author/bloomberg/) ## Olga Tanas and Henry Meyer / Bloomberg Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 22, 2020 9:12 AM CUT Vladimir Putin said he’ll consider running for a fifth presidential term in 2024, arguing that the hunt for any successor risks paralyzing Russia’s government as the next election nears. “I don’t rule out such a possibility,” if the necessary amendment to the constitution is approved, Putin said in a Rossiya 1 television [documentary](https://russia.tv/video/show/brand%5Fid/64871/episode%5Fid/2414965/video%5Fid/2309308/ "undefined") broadcast late Sunday. “I haven’t made up my mind yet.” On July 1, Russians will vote on the most sweeping changes to the nation’s constitution since it was adopted almost 30 years ago. One of the [amendments](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-08/putin-s-plan-to-extend-rule-played-down-in-kremlin-vote-pitch "undefined") would allow Putin, 67, to reset his term limit to zero even though he’s already served four, and to helm the country for two more six-year terms when his current one expires in 2024\. In power since 2000, Putin is already the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Josef Stalin. Without that amendment, “I can tell you from my own experience that in about two years, instead of the regular rhythmic work on many levels of government, you’d have eyes shifting around hunting for possible successors,” Putin said. “It’s necessary to work, not look for successors.” A top ally of the Russian president, Andrei Klishas, a senior lawmaker who helped to steer the constitutional overhaul, said that Russians should stop thinking about who will rule after Putin leaves office. “They should get used to the idea that everything will remain the same, that the president can be re-elected if people support these changes to the Constitution,” Klishas said in an [interview](https://www.rbc.ru/interview/politics/22/06/2020/5eeb87f59a794754b917b24f "undefined") with RBC newspaper published Monday. “This amendment allows us to put aside the issue of successors, transfer of power and so on.” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, on Monday denied the president’s comment meant the political system he built was incapable of functioning in the event of a change of leadership. But he said speculation over potential successors “is a characteristic of our national bureaucracy.” For the moment, Putin’s main goal is to avoid becoming a “lame duck” in the final years of his current mandate, said Leonid Davydov, a political analyst at the Foundation for Civil Society Development in Moscow. But there is “little doubt” that the Russian president will choose to run again for election, he said. In the same state-TV interview Sunday, Putin also harshly criticized neighboring states for absorbing “traditional Russian historic territories” on independence in 1991 that they had acquired during the existence of the Soviet Union. These states should have “left with what they arrived, rather than taking with them presents from the Russian people,” he said. Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014 from Ukraine, restoring control over the peninsula that had been Russian until 1954, doesn’t have any territorial claims on its neighbors, Peskov told reporters Monday on a conference call, in response to a question about this comment. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5857003/vladimir-putin-russia-fifth-presidential-term/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5857003/vladimir-putin-russia-fifth-presidential-term/"},"headline":"Vladimir Putin Signals He May Seek to Extend His Rule in 2024","datePublished":"2020-06-22T09:12:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:54:43.480Z","description":"\"I don’t rule out such a possibility,\" he said","url":"https://time.com/5857003/vladimir-putin-russia-fifth-presidential-term/","keywords":["russia","wire","overnight","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted08a305301be467/698a0f8701168228b997f886/vladimir_putin_fifth_term_russia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olga Tanas and Henry Meyer / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted08a305301be467/698a0f8701168228b997f886/vladimir_putin_fifth_term_russia.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"putin-orders-amendment-extend-rule","caption":"RUSSIA-HEALTH-VIRUS-POLITICS","creditText":"ALEXEY NIKOLSKY—SPUTNIK/AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/russia/","name":"russia"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5857003/vladimir-putin-russia-fifth-presidential-term/","name":"Vladimir Putin Signals He May Seek to Extend His Rule in 2024"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Russian President Putin Backs Amendment Allowing Him to Remain in Power","description":"Russian President Vladimir Putin says he supports a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow him to seek another term and remain in power.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/J6NVnXS4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2020-03-10T14:23:09.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/J6NVnXS4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5857003/vladimir-putin-russia-fifth-presidential-term/","duration":"PT51S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5857003/vladimir-putin-russia-fifth-presidential-term/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```