Putin competes with 3 war supporters in the presidential elections. Observers expect Putin (71 years old) to easily win next month's elections.
Putin chose to run in the elections as an independent rather than a candidate for the ruling United Russia party. Two months ago, former television journalist Ekaterina Dontsova was excluded from running. Putin's critics said that the decision to ban her shows that no one with real opposition views will be allowed to run against him in the first presidential elections since the start of the war on Ukraine 24 months ago.