Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced his renewed candidacy in next year's presidential election, as had been expected, Russian state media reported on Friday.
Putin stated his intention to run for a fifth term in the March 17 polls at the request of military officials, according to the reports. He made the announcement at a ceremony in the Kremlin honouring Russian heroes.
The 71-year-old head of state previously had the Russian constitution amended specifically so that he could run again.
Earlier, the central election commission in Moscow had officially confirmed the date for the vote.
According to Russian state media, the news of Putin's renewed candidacy was broken by Artyom Zhoga, an official from the Moscow-occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.
The native Ukrainian, who previously fought with pro-Russian separatists against Kiev's troops, asked Putin to allow the people in the annexed territories to take part in the election as well.
It had been rumoured in Russia for weeks when and how Putin would announce his new candidacy.
On Friday morning, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the president would do so if he felt it was necessary.
After the end of the ceremony in the Kremlin, officials in Russia went into overdrive with declarations of loyalty, saying that they would cast their ballots for Putin.
State television has for days been showing programmes in which citizens assure Putin, who has been in power for almost a quarter of a century, that they will vote for him.
His re-election is considered a foregone conclusion.
The Kremlin is expecting a record result for Putin in the election, which will come more than two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The president, a former agent of the Soviet KGB intelligence service, presents himself as a champion against a US quest for world supremacy and against the eastward expansion of NATO.
The post-WWII perception of the West as Russia's sworn enemy again gained traction with millions of its citizens in recent years, especially after last year's invasion and the West's immediate political and military support for Ukraine.
In the 2018 vote, four years after Russian forces seized Crimea from Ukraine, Putin received 76.69% of the vote.
The Kremlin traditionally organizes a field of candidates for the presidency before the elections in order to create the appearance of a selection and competition for Putin.
However, the candidates put forward by various parliamentary parties are generally obscure figures with no chance of challenging Putin's grip on power.
Kremlin opponents centred around jailed Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny have launched a campaign titled "Russia without Putin" ahead of the polls.
It calls upon citizens to vote for any candidate but Putin.
