Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made this remarks to Russia’s RBC news website after the New York Times quoted him forecasting a 90% victory for Putin in next year’s presidential election. "Although elections are a requirement of democracy and Putin himself has decided to hold them, theoretically it’s possible not to hold them,” he said.
No, this is new. The Kremlin reacted to this report before and now says that as Putin "obviously"wins, they might not hold an election at all.