Lawmakers in Russia on Thursday set March 17 as the date for the country’s next presidential election, launching a race that few doubt will result in President Vladimir Putin’s reelection for another six-year term.

While the vote’s outcome is widely seen as a foregone conclusion in Russia, the campaign will take place under drastically different circumstances than the previous one in 2018.

It will be the first presidential election since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It also will be the first election since the passage of constitutional amendments in 2020 that allowed Putin, 71, to circumvent term limits. Some constitutional lawyers and experts still debate the legality of the reset. The vote Thursday in the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, marked the formal start of the election campaign.