Putin handily wins fourth six-year term to lead Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin cruised to a landslide re-election win yesterday at a time when his relations with the West are on an increasingly antagonistic path.
His successful bid for a fourth six-year Kremlin term makes him Russia’s longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
Yesterday’s vote was tainted by widespread claims of ballot-box stuffing and forced voting, which likely will do little to undermine Putin. His popularity at home remains high despite his suppression of dissent and reproach from the West over Russia’s progressively aggressive stance in world affairs and alleged 2016 U.S. election interference.
Putin’s main challenge was to obtain a huge margin of victory in order to claim an indisputable mandate. With ballots counted from a little more than 75 percent of the vast country’s precincts, he won more than 76 percent of the vote, the Central Elections Commission said.
“To him, order means he stays in power,” said Michael Corgan, associate professor of international relations at Boston University. “This is just a reaffirmation for him.”
Putin faced seven minor candidates on the ballot. His most ardent opponent, anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, was barred from running because he was convicted of fraud in a case widely seen as politically motivated.
For the United States and the rest of the West, Putin’s re-election means the “retreat of democracy everywhere,” Corgan said.
“Look at the people who have won lifelong power,” he said, citing North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte and China’s Xi Jinping. “The general trend that many people worry about is that the idea of democracy seems to be losing appeal to many people who are feeling left out by globalism. They want strong leaders to protect their own countries’ interests and democracy may not seem like the best way to do it.”
The election came amid escalating tensions between Russia and the West, with reports that Moscow was behind this month’s nerveagent poisoning of a former Russian double agent in Britain, and that its internet trolls had mounted an extensive campaign to undermine the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Britain and Russia last week announced tit-for-tat diplomat expulsions over the spy case, and the United States issued new sanctions.
The Russian election took place on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, one of the most dramatic manifestations of Putin’s drive to reassert Russia’s power.
In his next six years in office, Putin is likely to assert Russia’s power abroad even more strongly. Just weeks before the election, he announced Russia had developed advanced nuclear weapons capable of evading missile defenses. And he now has free rein to continue military support of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad to strengthen Russia’s Middle East foothold.
“He’s essentially been given permission by the Russian people, even though they have suffered some losses, to go ahead with what he’s doing,” Corgan said.