Putin eyes fourth term as Russians head to polls
FORGONE CONCLUSION With little opposition, Putin set to be president till ‘24 MOSCOW:
Russians headed to the polls in presidential elections expected to hand Vladimir Putin an easy victory, keeping him in power until 2024.
Putin, 65, already Russia’s longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin after more than 18 years at the helm, is seeking a fourth term amid an escalating stand-off with the West and economic malaise.
“I am confident that the programme I am offering for the country is right,” Putin told reporters on Sunday after voting at a polling station at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
With little opposition tolerated and widespread apathy about the outcome amid stagnating living standards, the Kremlin’s main task is to ensure turnout is enough to give Putin’s new term a stamp of legitimacy. Officials mounted a major drive ahead of the vote to get citizens to show up at polling places, offering inducements ranging from free food to prize contests.
Struggling with a cold for much of the campaign, Putin attended few election events and, as in previous contests, dodged televised debates with his opponents. State broadcasters lavished coverage on presidential visits to Russia’s regions, giving scant attention to his rivals. The debates often dissolved into shouting and pushing among the other candidates.
They include Communist Pavel Grudinin, a farm boss who’s defended Stalin’s bloody purges, ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who’s been trounced in past contests, and Boris Titov, who attracted ridicule for running against Putin while serving as the Kremlin’s business ombudsman.
There’s also former reality-TV star Ksenia Sobchak, who’s run a campaign critical of Putin while labouring under accusations from opposition leader Alexey Navalny that the Kremlin encouraged her candidacy to add sparkle to the lackluster contest. Navalny was barred from running.
With little doubt about the outcome, the Kremlin on Friday announced that Putin had already ordered his staff to draft policy decrees covering the next term.
Putin will face a host of challenges in his new six-year term, as a spiraling dispute with the UK over the suspected poisoning of a double agent and his daughter with a chemical weapon adds to tensions with the US and Europe over conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.
Russia is struggling to recover after the longest recession in two decades.
It’s sliding down the world ranking and is forecast to fall to 17th from 11th among the largest economies within 15 years, according to the London-based Centre for Economics & Business Research.
In what’s likely his last term as he’s obliged constitutionally to step down as president in 2024, Putin must also groom a trustworthy successor.