Vladimir Putin has swung into campaign mode ahead of March’s presidential election, portraying himself as a guarantor of stability for Russia and saying no opposition politician is fit to challenge him.

At his marathon annual televised press conference yesterday, the president told Russians his record was unassailable as he announced he would run for a fourth term, but as an independent candidate rather than relying on nomination by the ruling United Russia party.

Mr Putin claimed the country needed political competition but that none of its opposition politicians was fit to challenge him. He dismissed Alexei Navalny — the opposition politician who has emerged as his only potential challenger but is set to be barred from running — as a coup-plotting troublemaker lacking any recipe for Russia’s development.