“It’s basically not acceptable to talk about elections two years [before they take place], and it’s still quite a ways until the beginning of election campaigns. I don’t even know if Putin is planning on running again or not, but regardless in any case…the mudslinging campaign has already begun. But this doesn’t mean the president has made any sort of decision,” Peskov told journalists.
Peskov said that the United States has already started its campaign concerning Russian elections without even knowing whether Putin is going to participate in them.
“As a whole, it could be said that on the backdrop of the unprecedented remarks from an official from the US Department of Treasury, we see that preparations for our elections have already started across the ocean. Presidential elections in Russia are still far off, more than two years, but preparation, it seems, have begun. It’s clear that negativity is being collected in regard to the head of our state, and of course this is used to apply pressure and influence on the future election campaign,” Peskov added.
