Putin is likely to be in power until 2036 - political analyst

He expressed this opinion on Espreso TV.

"Indeed, society, or rather the population, we rarely use the word 'society' in relation to Russia anymore, so as not to expect that there is a civil society that influences the processes. No, there is a population, and we can talk about social groups that, depending on their professions or location, are now benefiting from Putin's war or losing something, but have tucked their tails and remain the most loyal and ready to be so in the future. In other words, Putin's population is ready for anything - this is a fundamental factor," Morozov explained.

Morozov noted that Putin's regime has long built its own model of governing Russia. According to him, today the Kremlin is actively involved in the structure of power in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

"There is still a bureaucracy, a very large bureaucratic layer. Yes, during the war, during these two years, Putin has finally tested his bureaucracy, which Kiriyenko and his staff have been preparing very actively for the last 5-7 years. The Kremlin was pumping out bureaucracy training programmes. By the way, now the Kremlin is testing these models in the occupied territories very actively, which is what Kiriyenko and not only he, but a large number of Russians are doing in the occupied territories, building their bureaucracy and governing apparatus there. This is all a process that is designed for a long time. Putin is making it clear to us that he is not running for one more term, but two, so plan for 2036, not 2030. This is how he sees the situation. We can't say that he will succeed because there are many factors that we can't predict, but the Kremlin is planning this way," he added.

• On February 19, the Kremlin sent specially trained units to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to manage fraud and monitor the work of the so-called election commissions to create a fake picture of support for Putin.
• On February 20, EU spokesman Peter Stano said in Brussels that the EU would not recognise the results of Putin's pseudo-presidential election in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.