Putin’s power is now like a czar’s
Kremlin extols election ‘victory’
When President Vladimir Putin of Russia appeared for a latenight news conference to claim a fifth term, he looked visibly elated, as if manipulating another election to remain indefinitely in power with 87.28 percent of the vote were a triumphal victory in a real competition.
The tally, virtually unimaginable in any democratic nation, suggests that the Kremlin is now less focused on manufacturing a veneer of electoral legitimacy and more on creating a cult of personality around Putin as Russia’s undisputed national patriarch and leader for life.
Mark Galeotti, a Russia analyst at University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies, said this outcome of the vote showed that Putin’s regime has shifted from an earlier model of “managed democracy” and is now “heading into its banana republic stage.”
“We should see elections under Putin as not being about popular sovereignty, but about popular subordination,” Galeotti said. “It is about the masses voting to accept Putin as their czar.”
He added: “It’s not just that the Kremlin is no longer embarrassed to rig the election. I think it’s almost, ‘So, what can you do about it?’ — a kind of challenge to civil society. ‘Of course you know we’re lying, but you’re going to have to swallow it because you’ve got no alternative.’ ”
Russians are now locked into Putin’s repressive, increasingly totalitarian path, including his bloody war in Ukraine and decisions to shun the West. Western leaders, meanwhile, face a strident, emboldened adversary in command of a nuclear arsenal.
In autocracies, much of politics ends up revolving around the obsessions of the supreme leader — in Putin’s case, eliminating all personal political competition and destroying Ukraine as a large and thriving Westernleaning democracy on Russia’s border.
It was telling that Putin mentioned both of those threats in his late-night victory address. Appearing supremely confident, Putin shrugged off the “unfortunate” death of his main rival, Alexei Navalny, in prison last month, which has left Putin with no conceivable challenger. He even spoke Navalny’s name aloud, which he is known to have done only once before.
Putin also staked out his determination to continue the war against Ukraine, even at the risk of war with NATO. “It is clear to everyone that this will be one step away from a full-scale World War III,” Putin said, blaming the West for providing support to Kyiv.
Putin’s 87.28 percent election result tracks with his recent wartime public approval ratings. But Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat who resigned over the invasion of Ukraine, said that no one in Russia’s elite is convinced by the numbers.
“I think they don’t really care about the figures,” Bondarev said. “They just know that everything is still under control, that Putin still manages to outplay anybody. And, of course, nobody from the very beginning considered these elections to be elections.”
Observers speculate that Putin, an impenetrable, seemingly isolated figure, is the only person who fully believes the Kabuki theater of Russia’s election.