In an election widely denounced as neither free nor fair, the longtime Russia leader claimed victory by margins virtually unimaginable in any democracy.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared for a late-night news conference to claim a fifth term, he appeared visibly elated, as if manipulating another election to remain indefinitely in power with 87.
Russians, by choice or not, are now locked into Putin’s repressive, increasingly totalitarian path — his bloody war in Ukraine and decisions to shun the West, isolate Russia’s economy and escalate hostility toward NATO. Western leaders, meanwhile, face a strident, emboldened adversary in command of a nuclear arsenal.
Putin’s 87.28 percent election result generally tracks with his recent wartime public approval ratings. But Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat who served at Russia’s U.N. mission in Geneva and 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.
The protest spoiled Putin’s picture of overwhelming popularity and showed that many Russians are still fired up by Navalny’s dream of a free and democratic Russia. “There are a lot of people who are completely detached from their homeland,” Peskov said. “Yulia Navalnaya you mentioned belongs to the camp of those people who are losing their roots, losing ties with their homeland, losing their understanding of their homeland and ceasing to feel the pulse of their country.”
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