Politics
How Putin Won Russia Election
President Vladimir Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide without any serious competition in Russia’s election on Sunday, solidifying his already tight grip on power in a victory he said showed Moscow had been right to stand up to the West and send its troops into Ukraine.
71-year-old Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who first rose to power in 1999, made it clear that the result should send a message to the West that its leaders will have to reckon with an emboldened Russia, whether in war or in peace, for many more years to come.
According to Reuters, the outcome of the presidential election means that Putin is set to embark on a new six-year term that will see him overtake Josef Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader for more than 200 years if he completes it.
Putin won 87.8% of the vote, the highest ever result in Russia’s post-Soviet history, according to an exit poll by pollster the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM). The Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) put Putin on 87%. First official results indicated the polls were accurate.
The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and other nations have said the vote was neither free nor fair due to the imprisonment of political opponents and censorship.
Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov finished second with just under 4%, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third, and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, partial results suggested.
In his victory speech in Moscow, Putin told his supporters that he would prioritize resolving tasks associated with what he called Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine and would strengthen the Russian military.
He said, “We have many tasks ahead. But when we are consolidated – no matter who wants to intimidate us, suppress us – nobody has ever succeeded in history, they have not succeeded now, and they will not succeed ever in the future.”
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