Russia’s parliament will officially announce the start of the 2024 presidential race on Dec.

13, the head of Russia’s Communist Party  Gennady Zyuganov told reporters during a press briefing on Tuesday.Next year’s presidential election is scheduled to take place in March, with President Vladimir Putin widely expected to run for a fifth term in office.“According to the information I have, the [upper-house] Federation Council will officially announce the start of the presidential election campaign on Dec.

13.,” Zuganov told reporters.The ruling United Russia party will announce its presidential nominee four days later, according to Zuganov. Putin has yet to officially announce whether he intends to run in the 2024 presidential election, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has previously said that it is “already obvious” the Russian leader will be re-elected next year and that he would win “with more than 90% of the vote.” While Putin does not have a formal party affiliation and is expected to run as an independent, United Russia will likely back his candidacy as it did in the last presidential election held in 2018.Zuganov said his own party will hold its congress on Dec.

23 and will announce “an entire team” of presidential nominees at the event. The 79-year-old Community Party leader did not say whether he plans to run in the 2024 presidential election, which would mark his fifth time running for the country’s highest office since 1996 were he to throw his hat in the ring.