The Russian presidential election takes place this weekend. The result of the vote is beyond doubt and the president-candidate is not participating in the campaign.
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He doesn’t even campaign. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to be re-elected for a new six-year term in the first round at the end of the week. His re-election is beyond doubt, neither in Russia nor abroad. The only unknown lies in his score, but it is unlikely that it will be lower than the 76.69% he collected in 2018, during his last election.
In 2018, the president-candidate was content with a minimum service, having only participated in two meetings a few days before the deadline. And yet, he only spoke for two minutes in Sevastopol and three minutes at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. This year, he will do even less: no campaign meetings, no televised debates and there are no posters on the walls of Moscow, no activists distributing leaflets.
No contradiction
Don’t look for the program either: candidate Putin doesn’t have one. We must refer to the speech before the two assemblies two weeks ago, where the president promised billions of rubles in projects, subsidies and tax cuts.
Vladimir Putin’s campaign boils down to something clearly expressed in his election video broadcast on television: “Who will ensure development?asks the voice-over. Who will guarantee stability? Who unites us? Who do you trust? In him alone.” According to this clip, Vladimir Putin is the only one capable of leading Russia. An axiom of Russian politics that no one contradicts, not even its three competitors, who debate among themselves on television. On social networks, a meeting is already announced at the Luzhniki stadium on March 18, the day after the first round, with the participation of “president” Poutine.
