what to remember from the unsurprising broad re-election of Vladimir Putin

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Six more years. Vladimir Putin was re-elected as head of Russia for a fifth term on Sunday March 17. The master of the Kremlin, in power for twenty-four years, won 87.28% of the votes, according to the final official results, communicated Monday by the Russian Electoral Commission. This is its best result, following a vote in which the opposition was sidelined, despite a few rare attempts to make a different voice heard. Franceinfo summarizes what you need to remember from this election.

A big, unsurprising victory

This election, which took place over three days, from Friday to Sunday, ended, as expected, with the victory of the outgoing president. With 87.28% of the vote, Vladimir Putin estimated Monday that the results of the presidential election in Russia demonstrated the “trust” Russians in his power. “We have many concrete and important tasks to accomplish. The results of the election testify to the confidence of the citizens of the country and their hope that we will do everything planned”, he declared in a televised speech on the night of Sunday to Monday. The participation was announced at 74.22%.

Vladimir Putin thus beats his previous record from 2018 (76%) and if nothing happens to him between now and the end of his mandate, in 2030, the leader will have surpassed Joseph Stalin’s record for longevity in the Kremlin. “This is not an election, but a farce. There are no opponents, no free media, no independent control of the ballot boxes”noted Sunday on franceinfo Jean-Maurice Ripert, former French ambassador to Russia, in 2013 and 2017.

Powers further strengthened

Vladimir Putin emerges strengthened from this election and appears even more like the master of Russia. “No matter who wants to intimidate us or how much, no matter who wants to crush us or how much, (…). No one has ever managed to do anything like this in history. didn’t work today and won’t work in the future.”, said the president, aged 71, during his speech on Sunday. The opposition candidates were “eliminated”And “the question of counting the ballots, or even the invention of the results” arises, argued Aude Merlin, professor of political science at the Free University of Brussels.

This re-election is above all the sign of a “toughening of the Putin regime” and a “society dragged towards the spiral of totalitarianism”observed on franceinfo Andreï Kozovoi, professor of Russian history at the University of Lille. “Vladimir Putin’s strength lies first and foremost in this fear”, which he is increasingly establishing among the Russian population, the historian warned. A fear which could well last, since Vladimir Putin will be able to run again after this new mandate to potentially remain in power until 2036, thanks to a tailor-made modification of the Constitution adopted by referendum in the summer of 2020.

Regarding the situation in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, thanks to this re-election, “feels free rein” for his military intervention, said Andreï Kozovoi. In his speech, the leader also saluted the soldiers fighting in Ukraine, who “risk their lives” For “protect the historical territories of Russia”. He also estimated that the Russian forces, on the offensive since the capture of Avdiïvka in mid-February facing a Ukrainian army lacking men and ammunition, had “entirely the initiative” on the front.

A vote disrupted by isolated incidents

This voting period did not take place completely peacefully. The election was, in fact, marked by deadly Ukrainian bombings and incursions by armed fighters claiming to be pro-Ukraine Russians into Russian border regions. On Sunday morning, a 16-year-old girl was killed in an air attack on the town of Belgorod, close to the border and very often targeted. In the afternoon, another person died and 19 others were injured in the same region.

In Russia, the NGO OVD-Info, specializing in monitoring repression, reported at least 85 arrests for various forms of electoral protest actions. Isolated incidents have been noted, notably in Moscow where a woman was arrested after “set fire” at a voting booth, the Ria Novosti news agency announced. Also in Moscow, a 20-year-old resident was arrested after spraying “coloring liquid” ballots placed in ballot boxes, the Russian Interior Ministry announced in a press release.

In Saint Petersburg, a young woman threw a Molotov cocktail at the entrance to a polling station in a school, without causing any casualties, according to a local official. She was then arrested, according to local media Fontanka.

A mobilized opposition, but without influence

Symbol of a muzzled opposition, the three other candidates in the presidential election were selected by the Kremlin and on the same line as it. No room was left for opponents. Vladimir Putin’s main adversary, Alexei Navalny, died in February, a “sad event” according to the Russian president, who declared that he had been favorable to the idea of ​​exchanging it with the West. “There was only one condition: that we trade him so that he doesn’t come back”he said.

The widow of political opponent number 1, Yulia Navalnaïa, had called on Alexeï Navalny’s supporters to show up in numbers by all going to vote at the same time, Sunday at noon, against the master of the Kremlin. She herself voted after several hours of waiting in a huge crowd at the Russian embassy in Berlin. “I wrote (on the ballot) the name ‘Navalny’ because it is not possible (…) that a month before the elections, the main opponent of Putin, already imprisoned, would be killed “, she told the press after voting. Alexei Navalny’s team said that Vladimir Putin’s score in the Russian presidential election had no “no connection with reality”.

Vladimir Putin assured Monday that the protest actions at the call of the opposition had not had “no effect” on the presidential election, while threatening prosecution against those who spoiled ballots. “This is a criminal offense and our law enforcement and judicial authorities will act in accordance with the law”he threatened.

Europe deplores unfair elections, China congratulates Putin

International reactions after this re-election have multiplied. France deplored on Monday that “the conditions for a free, pluralist and democratic election” have not been “a new time” united. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs further welcomed “the courage of the many Russian citizens who peacefully demonstrated their opposition to this attack on their fundamental political rights”.

Vladimir Putin’s re-election is based on “repression and intimidation”for his part, declared Monday the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell. The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, denounced on Sunday “illegal organization of elections on Ukrainian territory, lack of choice for voters”And “the absence of independent monitoring by the OSCE”the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Poland reacted by asserting that this election was not “not legal, free and fair”adding that the vote took place “in a context of severe repression” and in the occupied regions of Ukraine, in violation of international law. The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, considered that Vladimir Putin was a man “drunk with power” wanting “reign forever”. The United States criticized the holding of the vote in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Moscow.

The leaders of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Bolivia, for their part, congratulated Vladimir Putin on his re-election, as did China, which expressed “his congratulations”according to the spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. “We are confident that under the strategic leadership of President Xi Jinping and President Putin, China-Russia relations will continue to move forward.”he added.


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