Vladimir Putin:
Vladimir Putin He was elected as the President of Russia for the fifth time. He will be the president till 2030.
Putin said his victory would make Russia stronger and move forward.
Putin got 87 percent of the votes in the election. He got 76.7 percent votes in the last election. But this time, the Kremlin trampled the political system, the media, and the elections, preventing any opponent from contesting.
The West has denied that the elections in Russia were not free and fair. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is one of those accused. Putin is described as a dictator, and he is addicted to power.
Putin is now 71 years old. He was first elected as the President of Russia in 1999. Putin is the longest serving president since Joseph Stalin. Now he has broken even Stalin’s record.
The Russia-Ukraine war has entered its third year. Many Russians die in this war. The West isolated Russia. But let’s find out three reasons why Putin became powerful.
1. Suppression of dissenting voices
Journalist Andrey Soldatov is currently in exile in London. He was forced to leave Russia in 2020.
“Putin knows very well how to suppress all political discussions in the country. Putin is a bellwether in this regard. “He is really bold in framing his political opponents,” he said.
Apart from Putin, there are only three other candidates’ names on the 2024 election ballot. None of them are up to par with Putin. All of them supported Putin in his war with Ukraine.
Those who oppose Putin are jailed, killed, or forced to flee the country. But the Russian government denies that any such practices exist in their country. With Russia’s presidential election set to begin in less than a month, Putin’s nemesis, 47-year-old Alexei Navalny, has died in prison.
He was jailed on charges of fraud, contempt of court, terrorism and others. But all the charges against him are said to be politically motivated.
High-ranking politicians and journalists who opposed Putin died. Prigozhin, leader of the private army Wagner Group, died in a plane crash. This incident happened a few months after they faced the Russian army.
Boris Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of Putin, was also shot dead on a Kremlin bridge in 2015.In early 2006, journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in Moscow during the Chechen war.
“It’s really scary to live in a country where journalists are killed, politicians and rights activists die in prisons,” Soldatov said.
“Mentally it’s very difficult. That’s why the common people obey whatever the Kremlin does. They are doing it because survival is important. And that doesn’t mean they support everything the Kremlin does,” says Soldatov.
Putin has also tried to suppress dissent among the general public. The Kremlin introduced a new censorship law in 2022 following the attack on Ukraine. The law criminalized anti-government sentiment and maligning the Russian military.
If found guilty under this Act, he will be imprisoned for five years. President Putin said the protests during the elections had no effect.
“Putin believes the country is too weak,” says Soldatov. That is why Putin wants to suppress any form of dissent in the country. Just two or three girls protesting on the road is expected to lead to the next revolution.
2. Russia – Ukraine war
At a post-election press conference, Putin announced that attacks on Ukraine would continue.
It has been three years since Russia started its war on Ukraine, but it is not succeeding as quickly as many thoughts. Dr. Ekaterina Shalman, a Russian diplomat in Berlin, says Putin is turning the war in his favor. “It affected the way Russians saw themselves, the outside world, and their leaders,” he says.
Ekaterina Shalman strongly believes that the attack on February 24, 2022, was not as big a deal to insiders as it was to outsiders. At first it seemed great to the Russians. When military procurement began in September 2022, their concerns reached a new level. People were very scared. People’s aversion to war has increased.
Soldatov also believes the same thing. “Putin is trying to change the fact that Russian support for the war has waned,” he said. However, Putin’s comments about a war against Ukraine’s allies, rather than a war against Ukraine, touched another side of the crowd.
“This is not a war with Ukraine anymore. War with the West. This makes many Russians proud. Because they are going to the feeling that the war is not with a small country, but also with a big enemy,” said Soldatov. IN his speech on February 29, Putin warned the West against sending troops to Ukraine. If Sweden and Finland join NATO, they will strengthen their security.
“Everyone in the country, including me, was taught in school that Russia is the only empire in the world, and it was built by people peacefully,” said Soldatov.
“If people believe Putin’s words that everyone is trying to attack us, if NATO forces move towards the Russian border, then people will believe Putin’s stories,” Soldatov said. Soldatov says that even the West has not been able to tell the world about the war on Ukraine.
“For example, people in Africa and South America cannot understand why this war should be blamed on them. It is exactly this gap that Putin is turning in his favor,” he said.
3.Economic power
Despite the many sanctions imposed on Russia following the war on Ukraine, Russia’s economic boom has surprised many economists.
“The country’s economy is doing well,” said the BBC’s Russian business correspondent, Alexey Kalmykov. “It also boosted Putin’s prestige. “His leverage has also increased because he is standing against the West, which is attacking the Russian economy,” he said.
According to International Monetary Fund estimates, Russia’s economy grew by 2.6 percent. After freezing 300 billion dollars of Russian assets and imposing many sanctions, it was thought that it would be difficult for Russia to recover economically.
However, all these restrictions are not uniformly implemented across the world. Due to this, Russia is able to trade freely with China, India, Brazil and neighboring countries like Kazakhstan and Armenia. It is helping to withstand Western sanctions.
Kalmykov further elaborated on this point, “Russia makes money by exporting goods. It sells goods at the prices it likes. Oil embargoes have become merely decorative. European countries buy natural fuel and nuclear fuel from Russia. But the European Union has not imposed any restrictions on them,” he said. “It’s all part of the game. But one thing is true. “Putin’s propaganda apparatus is very determined to do its job,” Kalmykov said.
However, Putin seems more powerful than ever. But it is a story that has to end forever, says Dr. Shalman.