Spoiler Alert: Putin wins
"2018 Russian Election" the movie poster.
Just before Vladimir Putin became President of Russia, in 2000, he said that Russia is part of "European culture" and he would not rule out the possibility of joining NATO. “I cannot imagine my own country in isolation from Europe", Putin had said. He had given hope to the world. Hope of a Russia, that will be less hostile, no longer isolated and be more receptive to foreign ideas. Almost 18 years later, it's fair to say that Putin has made changes to Russia. However, none of them were even remotely close to the Russia that the international community had expected. President Vladimir Putin won his fourth term as President of Russia in the 2018 elections with 73.9 percent of the vote.
As Expected-
If the Russian elections were a movie then it would get terrible ratings. "No suspense" is what a reporter said from Moscow as he talked about the elections. In Russia, the results were already clear and predictable long time before the elections. Putin is extremely popular in Russia with recent approval ratings, as reported by the state-owned Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), being 69 percent. Putin also made sure that he would win by barring any (realistic) opposition from running.
Why is Putin so popular?
Almost three quarters of the current population were born and raised in the USSR. Even after twenty-six years since the Soviet Union collapsed, many people have retained the mentality of the Cold War of being under threat from western society. They believe that Putin can challenge the US and NATO to confront them about Russia's interests. Levada, the only independent poling company in Russia, found out that most people in Russia think that Putin is a confident man that "commands respect and can stand up to the west". While Russia (under Putin) has a poor standard of living and limited freedom of speech, people compare it to their Soviet past rather than some current western democracies.
The opposition-
While Putin's ratings have been high, many say that is because there is no competition. "A strong Russia, A strong President" is what a poster says in big bold letters. The poster also asks people to vote on the 18th of March as they have a responsibility to choose the correct future for Russia. However, many voters might have noticed that there really is no competition. Does freedom of choice really exist if virtually there is only one candidate? That doesn't mean that Putin's is the only name on the ballot. But it seems that the opponents (that are allowed to run) have no chance of winning. They are considered puppets to make the election look legitimate. One of the opponents is Ksenia Sobchak, a former reality TV star and Russia has been skeptical of her due to her background and close connection to the Putin Family. She got 2 percent of the votes and represents the Civil Initiative. Another minor "opposition" is Vladimir Zhirinovsky representing the Liberal Democratic Party. He is seen as "court clown" and has been running in every election since the collapse of the Soviet Union and managed to get 5 percent vote. There are 5 other candidates that count as opposition. But the real opposition is silenced by hook or by crook.
Alexei Navalny is an anti-corruption activist. He has been barred from running by the Kremlin, probably in fear of him getting noticeable support. “An election without us is not an election,” he had declared while submitting his nomination to the Central Electoral Commission, which decides who can run. Authorities declared him ineligible to run due to a criminal conviction, that many think is politically motivated. In Russia individual candidate only needs 500 supporters to be nominated but, even after 15,000 people endorsed Navalny he was not barred from run. However, he was not allowed to run and had since then called for a boycott and a "voters' strike". He has been arrested and sued many times yet he prevails (for now). Nevertheless, he is not the first, many before him have been shut down by being arrested on fake "charges" and sometimes even killed. All hope is that some real opposition can rise and survive.
Are the elections rigged?
While Mr. Putin will surely secure a victory (since he banned main opposition and does seem to be popular/the only choice), he wants to win big. That is why to get a big majority of the vote, people in Russia have been whispering and people on the internet screaming, about vote rigging. There are many videos online that show people putting in multiple votes. In a video, people can be seen stuffing more than one paper into the ballot. This has put into the question the legitimacy of such a large win for Vladimir Putin. However, there is no proof that the clips are actually from the elections. Also it seems like that such vote rigging is not making much of a difference to Putin and is being widely ignored.
Putin vs the world-
So, Putin managed to get another one "in the bag". That means he will be in power until 2024. So what are Putin's policy towards the world? It's not as easy to understand what Putin really wants. He has taken over Crimea and Eastern Ukraine which seem like efforts to dominate as much of the former Soviet Union as possible. However, such hostile action has lead to sanction and crippling of the economy. Russia has been involved in recent events such as the Sergei Skripal poisoning in the UK (which didn't seem to affect the elections). After the election of US president Donald Trump, Russia may have finally seen some good days. Donald Trump had been quite lax with Russia until he increased sanctions and supported UK against Russia. Russia had also been rumored to interfering in the US elections (leading to an investigation) and has controversially been in support of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Putin seems to be on a never ending "war" with the west and tensions had only been higher during (and before) the cold war.
Not a small problem-
Putin has been pugnacious with the west for a long time that has hurt the Russian economy and Russia's foreign relations. Russia has to bear sanctions while at the same time trying to balance its own corrupt political system. With Russia's "elections" and "freedom of speech" it seems as if Russia does have a lot to handle internally. However, the people that are blinded by the state media support Putin and his policy. Mr. Putin was asked by a reporter the day he won if he would be running for the next elections, Putin simply laughed it off. Still, the problem is not whether Putin stays or not, the problem is the system. Once Putin goes somebody else like him will come. If people like Alex Navalny are not able to break the wall of the corrupted system, it will be hard for Russia to go down the road of prosperity.