Vladimir Putin

Putin's plan for successor: "Risking life"

Johan Edgar

Published 2025-09-18 23:54

 

Putin has revealed his plan for the next generation of Russia's top brass. Photo: Maxim Shemetov / AP

The next generation of Russian leaders must meet a requirement.

 

This is what Putin says.

– They will be our successors, he says.

Is Vladimir Putin perfectly healthy, seriously ill – or does he see himself as practically immortal?

Speculation about the 72-year-old Russian president has been rife in recent years since he launched the war against Ukraine.

Putin's sometimes strange movements in video clips have been criticized by experts and led to unconfirmed reports in the Western press that he suffers from all sorts of serious illnesses.

Can be transplanted to become younger

At the same time, Putin has done nothing to indicate that he is prepared to give up his iron grip on Russia.

When a microphone was forgotten to be turned off during the state visit to Beijing, it sounded as if the president was planning to live a long time.

Vladimir Putin with Xi Jinping. Photo: Alexander Kazakov/AP

Putin then told Xi Jinping that "human organs can be transplanted all the time so that people can become younger, maybe even immortal."

The Chinese leader replied that "by the end of the century, people could live to be 150."

The plan for the future

Regardless, if he does not actually succeed in making himself immortal, Putin will at some point be replaced by a new president.

In a speech during a meeting with members of parliament, the president talked about his plan for the next generation of Russian top brass, 

Newsweek

 writes, citing the state-controlled Russian news agency Tass.

They must be veterans of the war in Ukraine, Putin said.

"We must look for, find and highlight people who fearlessly serve the motherland and who have been willing to risk their health and even their lives," the president said, according to Newsweek.

Millions of Russians in the war

- Such people should be promoted to leadership positions. They will be our successors. It is something we must think about. And thank you for highlighting such people, he continued in his speech to the members of parliament.

 

A Russian soldier in an unknown location in Ukraine. Photo: AP Via The Russian Defense Ministry

From the start of the war in February 2022 until the beginning of 2025, more than 1.5 million Russians have probably participated in some way in the fighting against Ukraine, British Russia expert Mark Galeotti told Newsweek.

And since then the war has been going on for another nine months.

According to the changes to the Russian constitution that Putin pushed through in 2020, he can stay in office until 2036. Then he will turn 83.