Vladimir Putin will be eyeing a fifth term as Russia's president when the country goes to the polls on March 17, 2024.

In a meeting broadcast live on television, the upper house of parliament unanimously approved the date of the vote on Thursday.

The decision "practically kicks off the presidential campaign," according to the head of the chamber, Valentina Matvienko.

Putin, a former KGB agent who has been in power in Russia either as president or prime minister since 1999, has not officially announced if he will stand in the vote for another six-year mandate.

The 71-year-old is due to hold an end-of-year press conference next week, where he could announce his candidacy.

It will be the first time he holds such a press conference since he ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia has since said it has annexed the Ukrainian regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia even though Russian troops do not fully control them.

Voting is planned also in those regions.

"Despite the difficult external circumstances and the attempts by the enemy to weaken Russia, we remain true to our main constitutional values," Matvienko said.

She added that Russians were "united like never before" around Putin's government "and the task of the state is to show it is worthy of this trust and to prevent any provocations."

Putin would be running for a fifth presidential term. Following a constitutional reform in 2020, he could stay in power as president until 2036.