Russian President Vladimir Putin says he “dreams” of traveling the world after a “successful retirement” – but still refuses to confirm whether he’ll be running for office in 2018’s presidential elections.

The president told factory workers in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk that he wanted nothing more than to take in the planet's great sights and appreciate the natural world.

"Right now, all of my traveling is reduced to moving from one airport to another room somewhere else,” he said. “I would like to travel differently, taking the time to look at nature or historical sites."

The president has not yet confirmed whether he will be running in Russia’s 2018 presidential elections, telling the Bloomberg news agency in September that it was “far too early” to make such a decision in a “rapidly changing world.”

Almost half of Russians believe there will no politician capable of challenging Putin during the elections, a report by independent pollster the Levada Center found in November.

Some 49 percent of respondents said that Putin would face no real competition if he ran for his fourth term, and 63 percent said they would want him to continue as president.