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Russian President Vladimir Putin will run for re-election not as a candidate of the ruling United Russia party but as an independent, he announced on Thursday, the Financial Times reported.

“I hope I will be supported by some popular groups, movements, parties,” Mr Putin said at his annual televised press conference. “I hope to be a candidate with broad support by the people.”

Putin said he did not see any opposition politician who qualified as a true alternative to himself.

Rattling down a long list of statistics such as the increase of Russia’s GDP, the growth in pensions and the fall in infant mortality since he came to power in 2000, Putin said: “This has to mean something.”

Putin noted it was too early to set out his electoral program, but named priority issues, aside from helping forge what he called a flexible political system, as nurturing a high-tech economy, improving infrastructure, healthcare, education, productivity and increasing people’s real incomes, Reuters reported.