Updated 6:59 p.m. | Speaker John A. Boehner told The Cincinnati Enquirer he will seek to remain the speaker in the next Congress and is confident his conference will keep him in the top slot.  

“It won’t even be close. …I think I’m in better shape with my own caucus than I have ever been in the last three years,” Boehner told the paper, tamping down persistent speculation inside Washington that Boehner could be eyeing the exits, particularly after he recently bought a condo in Florida.  

Boehner said the condo purchase “has nothing to do with my future,” the paper reported .  

Boehner also called Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin a “thug” and backed a round of sanctions against Russia in the wake of the standoff in Ukraine.