Vladimir Putin will run for president again as an independent candidate with a broad base of support and not on a party list, two senior pro-Kremlin lawmakers said on Saturday, the RIA news agency reported.
Putin, who has been in power either as president or prime minister for more than two decades, has announced he will seek another six-year term next March in an election he is expected to win comfortably.
He will not run as a candidate of the ruling United Russia (UR) party, although he has its full support, but as an independent candidate, said Andrej Turchak, a senior official of the UR party, RIA quoted.
RIA also quotes Sergei Mironov, a senior politician from the Just Russia party who supports Putin, as saying that Putin will run as an independent and that signatures will be collected for his support.
