Metropolis Desk-
In an election held on Sunday, President Vladimir Putin secured a record-breaking victory in Russia that solidified his already firm hold on power. Putin claimed the victory demonstrated Moscow’s right to defy the West and send soldiers into Ukraine.
The outcome, according to Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who first came to power in 1999, should clearly signal to the West’s leaders that they will have to deal with a more powerful Russia for many more years to come, in both peace and war.
Due to the outcome, Putin, 71, will begin a new six-year term that, if he finishes, will surpass Josef Stalin’s record of serving as Russia’s leader for more than 200 years.
According to an exit survey conducted by pollster Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), Putin received 87.8% of the vote, the most percentage of any candidate in Russia’s post-Soviet history. Putin was ranked 87% by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM). According to the initial official findings, the polls were correct. Due to censorship and the imprisonment of political opponents, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and other countries have declared that the vote was not free nor fair.
Partial results indicated that ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky came in fourth, rookie Vladislav Davankov came in third, and communist contender Nikolai Kharitonov came in second with little less than 4%.
In a victory address delivered in Moscow, Putin assured supporters that he would bolster the Russian military and give priority to finishing tasks related to what he described as Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“We have a ton of work ahead of us. However, Putin stated, “Nobody has ever succeeded in history, they are not succeeding now, and they will never succeed in the future when we are consolidated, no matter who wants to intimidate and suppress us.”
Cheerleaders yelled “Russia, Russia, Russia” when he finished his acceptance speech and “Putin, Putin, Putin” when he first stepped onto the stage.
Thousands of opponents of Putin demonstrated against him at polling places both domestically and internationally at noon, spurred on by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who passed away in an Arctic prison last month.
Putin told reporters that he thought Russia’s election was democratic and that the protest against him, which was sparked by Navalny, had no bearing on the result of the vote.
He also described Navalny’s loss as a “sad event” in his initial remarks following his death, and he affirmed that he had been prepared to carry out a prisoner swap including the opposition figure.
In response to a question about whether his re-election was democratic by the US TV network NBC, Putin criticized the legal and political systems in the US.
“The whole world is laughing at what is happening (in the United States),” stated the politician. “This is just a disaster, not a democracy.”
“Is it democratic to use administrative resources, including the judiciary, to attack one of the candidates for the presidency of the United States?” he posed, seemingly alluding to the four criminal cases that Republican nominee Donald Trump was facing.
The Russian election takes place a little more than two years after Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, which set off the worst conflict in Europe since World War Two.
The three-day election has been clouded by war since Ukraine has been attacking Russian oil refineries, shelling Russian areas, and attempting to breach Russian borders with proxy forces—a move that Putin threatened to punish.
Putin stated that in order to stop such attacks in the future, Russia could have to establish a buffer zone inside Ukraine.
Given his dominance over Russia and the lack of serious opponents, Putin’s reelection was inevitable, but the former KGB operative had sought to demonstrate that the Russian people overwhelmingly supported him.
When the polls closed at 1800 GMT, the national turnout was 74.22%, exceeding the 67.5% recorded in 2018, according to election officials.
The number of Russians who participated in the opposition marches, which were well guarded by tens of thousands of police and security personnel, was not independently calculated. Russia has 114 million voters.
At midday, Reuters journalists witnessed long lines of several hundred or perhaps thousands of people at polling places in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg, as voters, particularly younger ones, began to arrive.
Even though there were few obvious indicators that set them apart from other voters, some claimed to be protesting.
Russia saw at least 74 arrests on Sunday, according to OVD-Info, a watchdog organization that tracks repression of opposition.
There have been sporadic protests over the past two days, with some Russians setting voting booths on fire or pouring green dye inside ballot boxes. Pictures of tampered ballots with anti-Putin inscriptions were shared by opponents.
However, the opposition has lost its most powerful leader with Navalny’s passing, and other significant opposition members are either dead, imprisoned, or abroad.
Putin is portrayed by the West as a murderer and an authoritarian. Putin, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, intended to rule for ever, and the vote was invalid.
Putin frames the conflict as a centuries-old struggle against a collapsing West that, in his words, degraded Russia by intruding upon its sphere of influence following the Cold War.
According to Western intelligence chiefs, Russia’s election represents a turning point for the West and the conflict in Ukraine.
Ahead of the presidential election in November, support for Ukraine is entangled with US domestic politics.
Despite Kyiv’s 2022 invasion recapture, Russian forces had advanced following the previous year’s futile Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Source- Reuters
