By AFP
March 16, 2024
Putin has built up a system of domestic repression and confrontation with the West - Copyright POOL/AFP Gavriil GRIGOROV
Russian President Vladimir Putin has over the past two decades built up a system of domestic repression and confrontation with the West that is almost certain to guarantee a fifth term in office on Sunday.
Ever since the previously little-known KGB agent became president on New Year’s Eve 1999, he has consolidated power by bringing oligarchs to heel, banning any real opposition and turning Russia into an authoritarian state.
His most prolific critic, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison colony last month in mysterious circumstances. Other opponents are serving lengthy jail sentences or have fled into exile.
Abroad, 71-year-old Putin has spearheaded efforts to challenge the dominance of the West.
His grip on power tightened further after he invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with public dissent against the war effectively silenced through court proceedings and imprisonment.
His rule risks being defined by the war in Ukraine, which has cost many thousands of lives and sparked unprecedented Western sanctions that have created major tensions in the Russian economy.
There were large anti-war protests in the days after he ordered troops into Ukraine in the early hours of February 24, 2022. They were quickly quashed.
– Quashed mutiny –
But there were more demonstrations months later when the government was forced to announce a partial mobilisation, after Russia failed to topple Ukraine’s government in the opening offensive of the war.
The most serious challenge to Putin’s long rule came in June 2023, when Yevgeny Prigozhin, a long-time ally and head of the Wagner mercenary group, announced a mutiny to unseat Russia’s military leadership.
The bloody uprising threatened to tarnish Putin’s self-created image of a strategic genius — uncomfortable for a ruler who likes to compare himself to Peter the Great, the reform-minded emperor who expanded Russia’s borders.
But in recent months, Putin has demonstrated his lasting power.
Domestic opposition has been largely silent, the economy is growing again, the Russian military has gained ground in east Ukraine in recent weeks, and he has resumed foreign travel.
Putin started out as an intelligence officer before embarking on a political career in the mayor’s office in his native Saint Petersburg in 1991, as the Soviet Union was falling apart.
Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first president, appointed him as head of the FSB security service in 1998 and as prime minister the following year.
– Early reform hopes –
It was a carefully planned strategy, culminating in his nomination as acting president when Yeltsin resigned.
Putin won his first presidential election in March 2000 and a second term in 2004.
His rise initially spurred hopes that Russia would reform and become a predictable, democratic partner to the West on the global stage.
Putin gained popularity by promising stability to a country still reeling from a decade of humiliation and economic chaos following the Soviet collapse.
After two stints as president, Putin switched back to being prime minister in 2008 to circumvent a constitutional ban on holding more than two consecutive terms as head of state.
But he kept the reins of power firmly in hand and returned to the presidency in 2012 despite pro-democracy protests in Moscow, winning a fourth term in 2018.
He jailed his loudest rival, Alexei Navalny, in 2021 and kept him in prison for three years until his death under opaque circumstances in February 2024.
The clampdown on opposition movements ramped up after the launch of hostilities in Ukraine.
Thousands of Russians were handed long prison sentences using newly reinforced censorship laws.
– ‘New Iron Curtain’ –
The West imposed sanctions that effectively cut off Russia from the global banking system, adding to the Russian leadership’s siege mentality.
In October 2023, Putin accused Europe of creating a “new Iron Curtain” and said Russia was building “a new world” that would not be based on Western hegemony.
He has also increasingly pushed a domestic agenda of nationalism and social conservatism, including most recently laws against Russia’s LGBTQ community.
Persona non grata among Western leaders after the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian strongman has sought to pivot east, wooing India and China with increased energy exports.
After shrinking in 2022, the Russian economy began to grow again last year despite high inflation, a weakening of the ruble and a drastic increase in defence spending.
The war failed in its initial aims to topple Ukraine’s government and Russia was forced into a series of humiliating setbacks by the determined defence of the much smaller Ukrainian army.
– Growing confidence –
But, with the conflict now in its third year, Putin has been speaking with increased confidence about Russia’s prospects on the battlefield — a topic he avoided for many months.
Russian forces have successfully held off a much-hyped Ukrainian counter-offensive and there are increasing doubts about whether Kyiv can hold the front lines in the face of delays to much-needed Western military supplies.
Wrangling in Washington in recent months has held up $60 billion in military aid for Ukraine, prompting alarmed warnings from the US administration.
In February, Russian forces captured the former Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka, handing Moscow its first major territorial gain in more than a year of fighting for the town.
The Kremlin chief struck a defiant tone in his state of the nation address almost two weeks later, vowing his troops would fight until the end.
“They will not back down, will not fail and will not betray,” Putin said.
Putin vows Russia cannot be 'intimidated' in election day victory speech
Vladimir Putin said Russia would not be "intimidated" as he hailed an election victory that paves the way for the former spy to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than 200 years.
Issued on: 18/03/2024 -
'Drunk from power'
Putin singled out Russian troops fighting in Ukraine for special thanks in his post-election speech in Moscow.
And he was unrelenting in claiming his forces had a major advantage on the battlefield, even after a week that saw Ukraine mount some of its most significant aerial attacks on Russia and in which pro-Ukrainian militias launched armed raids on Russian border villages.
"The initiative belongs entirely to the Russian armed forces. In some areas, our guys are just mowing them -- the enemy -- down," he said.
Kyiv and its allies slammed the vote as a sham. President Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out at Putin as a "dictator" who was "drunk from power".
"There is no evil he will not commit to prolong his personal power," Zelensky said.
As early as Friday, the first day of voting, EU chief Charles Michel had sarcastically congratulated Putin on his "landslide victory".
Britain's foreign minister David Cameron added his voice to the protests, saying "this is not what free and fair elections look like", while the United States criticised the holding of the vote in Ukrainian territories occupied by Moscow.
The leaders of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Bolivia congratulated Putin on his re-election.
If he completes another full Kremlin term, Putin will have stayed in power longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century.
Allies of the late Alexei Navalny -- Putin's most prominent rival, who died in an Arctic prison last month -- had tried to spoil his inevitable victory, urging voters to flood polling stations at noon and spoil their ballots.
His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, was greeted by supporters with flowers and applause in Berlin. After voting at the Russian embassy, she said she had written her late husband's name on her ballot.
'Mr. Navalny'
Some voters in Moscow answered the opposition's call, telling AFP they had come to honour Navalny's memory and show their defiance in the only legal way possible.
"I came to show that there are many of us, that we exist, that we are not some insignificant minority," said 19-year-old student Artem Minasyan at a polling station in central Moscow.
Putin said the protest had had no impact and that those who spoiled their ballots would "have to be dealt with".
In his first public comments on Navalny's death last month, Putin called his passing a "sad event".
Using his name in public for the first time in years during a televised news conference, Putin said: "As for Mr. Navalny. Yes, he passed away. This is always a sad event."
Putin said a colleague had proposed swapping Navalny several days before he died for "some people" currently held in prisons in Western countries.
"The person who was talking to me hadn't finished his sentence and I said 'I agree'".
Former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev also congratulated Putin on his "splendid victory" long before the final results were due to be announced.
And state-run television praised how Russians had rallied with "colossal support for the president" as well as the "unbelievable consolidation" of the country behind its leader.
'Not alone'
At Navalny's grave in a Moscow cemetery, AFP reporters saw spoiled ballot papers with the opposition leader's name scrawled across them on a pile of flowers.
"We live in a country where we will go to jail if we speak our mind. So when I come to moments like this and see a lot of people, I realise that we are not alone," said 33-year-old Regina.
There were repeated acts of protest in the first days of polling, with a spate of arrests of Russians accused of pouring dye into ballot boxes or arson attacks.
Any public dissent in Russia has been harshly punished since the start of Moscow's offensive in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and there were multiple warnings from the authorities against election protests.
The OVD-Info police monitoring group announced that at least 80 people had been detained across nearly 20 cities in Russia for protest actions linked to the elections.
(AFP)
Vladimir Putin said Russia would not be "intimidated" as he hailed an election victory that paves the way for the former spy to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than 200 years.
Issued on: 18/03/2024 -
Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking on a visit to his campaign headquarters after a presidential election in Moscow, Russia on March 18, 2024.
All of the 71-year-old's major opponents are dead, in prison or exiled, and he has overseen an unrelenting crackdown on anybody who publicly opposes his rule or his military offensive in Ukraine.
"I want to thank all of you and all citizens of the country for your support and this trust," Putin told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Moscow early Monday, hours after polls closed.
"No matter who or how much they want to intimidate us, no matter who or how much they want to suppress us, our will, our consciousness -- no one has ever succeeded in anything like this in history. It has not worked now and will not work in the future. Never," he added.
With more than 99 percent of voting stations having submitted results, Putin had secured 87 percent of all votes cast, official election data showed, according to state news agency RIA.
It is a record victory in a presidential election where he faced no genuine competition.
The three-day election was marked by a surge in deadly Ukrainian bombardments, incursions into Russian territory by pro-Kyiv sabotage groups and vandalism at polling stations.
The Kremlin had cast the election as a moment for Russians to throw their weight behind the full-scale military operation in Ukraine, where voting was also being staged in Russian-controlled territories.
"I want to thank all of you and all citizens of the country for your support and this trust," Putin told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Moscow early Monday, hours after polls closed.
"No matter who or how much they want to intimidate us, no matter who or how much they want to suppress us, our will, our consciousness -- no one has ever succeeded in anything like this in history. It has not worked now and will not work in the future. Never," he added.
With more than 99 percent of voting stations having submitted results, Putin had secured 87 percent of all votes cast, official election data showed, according to state news agency RIA.
It is a record victory in a presidential election where he faced no genuine competition.
The three-day election was marked by a surge in deadly Ukrainian bombardments, incursions into Russian territory by pro-Kyiv sabotage groups and vandalism at polling stations.
The Kremlin had cast the election as a moment for Russians to throw their weight behind the full-scale military operation in Ukraine, where voting was also being staged in Russian-controlled territories.
'Drunk from power'
Putin singled out Russian troops fighting in Ukraine for special thanks in his post-election speech in Moscow.
And he was unrelenting in claiming his forces had a major advantage on the battlefield, even after a week that saw Ukraine mount some of its most significant aerial attacks on Russia and in which pro-Ukrainian militias launched armed raids on Russian border villages.
"The initiative belongs entirely to the Russian armed forces. In some areas, our guys are just mowing them -- the enemy -- down," he said.
Kyiv and its allies slammed the vote as a sham. President Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out at Putin as a "dictator" who was "drunk from power".
"There is no evil he will not commit to prolong his personal power," Zelensky said.
Russia's presidential election: Three Putin challengers but little suspense
As early as Friday, the first day of voting, EU chief Charles Michel had sarcastically congratulated Putin on his "landslide victory".
Britain's foreign minister David Cameron added his voice to the protests, saying "this is not what free and fair elections look like", while the United States criticised the holding of the vote in Ukrainian territories occupied by Moscow.
The leaders of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Bolivia congratulated Putin on his re-election.
If he completes another full Kremlin term, Putin will have stayed in power longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century.
Allies of the late Alexei Navalny -- Putin's most prominent rival, who died in an Arctic prison last month -- had tried to spoil his inevitable victory, urging voters to flood polling stations at noon and spoil their ballots.
His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, was greeted by supporters with flowers and applause in Berlin. After voting at the Russian embassy, she said she had written her late husband's name on her ballot.
'Mr. Navalny'
Some voters in Moscow answered the opposition's call, telling AFP they had come to honour Navalny's memory and show their defiance in the only legal way possible.
"I came to show that there are many of us, that we exist, that we are not some insignificant minority," said 19-year-old student Artem Minasyan at a polling station in central Moscow.
Putin said the protest had had no impact and that those who spoiled their ballots would "have to be dealt with".
In his first public comments on Navalny's death last month, Putin called his passing a "sad event".
Using his name in public for the first time in years during a televised news conference, Putin said: "As for Mr. Navalny. Yes, he passed away. This is always a sad event."
Putin said a colleague had proposed swapping Navalny several days before he died for "some people" currently held in prisons in Western countries.
"The person who was talking to me hadn't finished his sentence and I said 'I agree'".
Former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev also congratulated Putin on his "splendid victory" long before the final results were due to be announced.
And state-run television praised how Russians had rallied with "colossal support for the president" as well as the "unbelievable consolidation" of the country behind its leader.
'Not alone'
At Navalny's grave in a Moscow cemetery, AFP reporters saw spoiled ballot papers with the opposition leader's name scrawled across them on a pile of flowers.
"We live in a country where we will go to jail if we speak our mind. So when I come to moments like this and see a lot of people, I realise that we are not alone," said 33-year-old Regina.
There were repeated acts of protest in the first days of polling, with a spate of arrests of Russians accused of pouring dye into ballot boxes or arson attacks.
Any public dissent in Russia has been harshly punished since the start of Moscow's offensive in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and there were multiple warnings from the authorities against election protests.
The OVD-Info police monitoring group announced that at least 80 people had been detained across nearly 20 cities in Russia for protest actions linked to the elections.
(AFP)
Supporting Putin: Into the minds of Russian voters
Euronews
Sat, 16 March 2024
It is always difficult for Russian voters to express their opinion publicly, for fear of punishment for speaking their mind.
But a Czech TV station asked Russians to give their opinion on the presidential election, expected to end this Sunday, with a triumphant re-election for President Vladimir Putin.
Young people interviewed are often quite complimentary about the head of the Kremlin. Here are two examples:
Pavel Kipriyanov, freelance actor: "If we talk in general about the path chosen by my country and my government, well, I understand it perfectly, I accept it, except for certain things that may not suit me. But generally speaking, I'm happy with the direction my country is taking and I think it's great."
Milena Shikina, student, wife of Pavel: "Well, it seems to me that it's been since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 90s, when the country wasn't in the best of shape and was in fairly serious decline. And then Putin came along and the way our country lives today. I think it's a good result."
Many factors can explain this behaviour, says Russian sociologist Lev Gudkov. But when it comes to young people, Gudkov believes "they have lost their understanding of the Soviet era. They have no experience of it and have nothing to compare it with. They have been brought up, you might say, under Putin, and they know nothing else."
It's not as simple as a generational gap. Of the thousands of voters who have decided to leave Russia over the last two years, many have been young men, determined to escape the regime and conscription to fight in Ukraine. But, proportionally, many were unable to leave, while others chose not to leave their homeland. So why vote for Vladimir Putin in spite of everything?
Milena's father, for his part, is an outspoken opponent of the Moscow regime. But Artur Shikin, a building contractor, had to flee Russia and take refuge in Georgia. His opinion is clear-cut. "There are 150 million people, can't they oppose it? It's like with Stalin: people said that Stalin was responsible for everything. But at the same time, one third of the population imprisoned another third of the population and kept them in prisons, all that was done by people."
As for older voters, Gudkov also has an explanation. "Under Putin," he explains, "the idea of the future has disappeared. People have no image of the future and, as a result, there are no guidelines for development. That's what propoganda is saying: preserve the present".
One thing is almost certain: recent surveys have shown that the majority of Russian citizens are loyal to Putin, with support at around 70% compared with 20% for the opposition - although these figures are hard to verify.
Two-thirds of this same population wholeheartedly accept the information put out by state television and the pro-Kremlin media. But is it out of conviction or abnegation?
Euronews
Sat, 16 March 2024
It is always difficult for Russian voters to express their opinion publicly, for fear of punishment for speaking their mind.
But a Czech TV station asked Russians to give their opinion on the presidential election, expected to end this Sunday, with a triumphant re-election for President Vladimir Putin.
Young people interviewed are often quite complimentary about the head of the Kremlin. Here are two examples:
Pavel Kipriyanov, freelance actor: "If we talk in general about the path chosen by my country and my government, well, I understand it perfectly, I accept it, except for certain things that may not suit me. But generally speaking, I'm happy with the direction my country is taking and I think it's great."
Milena Shikina, student, wife of Pavel: "Well, it seems to me that it's been since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 90s, when the country wasn't in the best of shape and was in fairly serious decline. And then Putin came along and the way our country lives today. I think it's a good result."
Many factors can explain this behaviour, says Russian sociologist Lev Gudkov. But when it comes to young people, Gudkov believes "they have lost their understanding of the Soviet era. They have no experience of it and have nothing to compare it with. They have been brought up, you might say, under Putin, and they know nothing else."
It's not as simple as a generational gap. Of the thousands of voters who have decided to leave Russia over the last two years, many have been young men, determined to escape the regime and conscription to fight in Ukraine. But, proportionally, many were unable to leave, while others chose not to leave their homeland. So why vote for Vladimir Putin in spite of everything?
Milena's father, for his part, is an outspoken opponent of the Moscow regime. But Artur Shikin, a building contractor, had to flee Russia and take refuge in Georgia. His opinion is clear-cut. "There are 150 million people, can't they oppose it? It's like with Stalin: people said that Stalin was responsible for everything. But at the same time, one third of the population imprisoned another third of the population and kept them in prisons, all that was done by people."
As for older voters, Gudkov also has an explanation. "Under Putin," he explains, "the idea of the future has disappeared. People have no image of the future and, as a result, there are no guidelines for development. That's what propoganda is saying: preserve the present".
One thing is almost certain: recent surveys have shown that the majority of Russian citizens are loyal to Putin, with support at around 70% compared with 20% for the opposition - although these figures are hard to verify.
Two-thirds of this same population wholeheartedly accept the information put out by state television and the pro-Kremlin media. But is it out of conviction or abnegation?
Two girls point to the sky -- a gesture often used by Islamic State -- in the al-Hol camp in Syria where the families of IS fighters are held © Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP
The vast Al-Hol camp in Syria holds more than 40,000 people -- all but 3,000 women and children © Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP
