President Putin has no time to celebrate election victory, plans to meet defense minister soon

According to TASS news agency on March 18, the leading candidate in the Russian presidential race and incumbent President Vladimir Putin plans to soon meet with Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov.

Asked by reporters about his plans, Mr Putin said: "I will have a discussion with the chief of the general staff and the defense minister."

Earlier, the Kremlin spokesman said that the Russian leader had no time to celebrate the election victory. His conversation with the defense minister is scheduled to take place on the morning of March 18.

Plan to meet opponentspaintingsend

Also according to TASS, President Putin said he also plans to meet other presidential candidates on March 18.

“A meeting with all presidential candidates is scheduled for tomorrow,” Mr. Putin told reporters at his campaign office on March 17.

As of now, according to the Russian Central Election Commission, 95.08% of the votes have been counted, and Russia's incumbent president, Vladimir Putin, is leading the 2024 presidential race with 87.32% of the votes.

Communist Party candidate Nikolay Kharitonov came in second with 4.28%, followed by New People's Party candidate Vladislav Davankov with 3.85%. LDPR candidate Leonid Slutsky came in fourth, garnering 3.15% of the vote.

No rush to solve government personnel issues

According to Mr. Putin, there is no need to rush to solve personnel issues in the Russian Government.

“The question is who will be appointed to which positions to achieve maximum effectiveness as a collective,” the leader told reporters at his campaign headquarters.

According to him, “there is no need to rush”, because “the law gives us two and a half months to resolve these issues. This is exactly what we will do”, the Russian leader added.