Putin will run for presidency in 2024 polls

MOSCOW, Dec 09 (Reuters): Russia's paramount leader, Vladimir Putin, was not even looking at the television camera when he announced that he would run for presidency in 2024 election and aim to stay in the Kremlin for at least another six years as head of the world's biggest nuclear power.

After pinning the gold star "Hero of Russia" medals on the lapels of soldiers who had fought in Ukraine, some of the men and mothers of the fallen rushed up to one of the best-guarded leaders in the world in the Grand Kremlin Palace.

Artyom Zhoga, a lieutenant colonel born in Soviet-era Ukraine who fights for Russia, asked Putin to run again: "You are our president, we are your team. We need you. Russia needs you." Putin thanked him.

"I will not hide that I have had different thoughts at different times but it is now time to make a decision. I will run for the post of president," Putin said, his muffled words picked up by a microphone nearby and his back to the camera.

Others, including Sapizhat Mazayeva, mother of a fallen soldier decorated as a hero of Russia, told the 71-year-old president and ex-KGB spy that his work needed to be continued.

The setting of Putin's announcement, surrounded by decorated soldiers and mothers of fallen soldiers, may be an indication of how he perceives his rule, and some Kremlin watchers said it could give hints about the future of the Ukraine war.