Russian leader a step closer to a fifth term in widely expected announcement, with little doubt over outcome
Vladimir Putin has said he will run for president in the March 2024 election, moving the longtime Russian leader a step closer to a fifth term in office.
The announcement on Friday was widely expected and there is little question about the outcome.
Putin has dominated Russia’s political system and the media for the past two decades, jailing prominent opposition politicians, such as Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin, who could challenge him on the ballot. Putin has won previous elections by a landslide, but independent election watchdogs say they were marred by widespread fraud.
Putin’s long-term spokesperson in a previous interview said: “Putin will be re-elected next year with more than 90% of the vote”.
We all already know how this will end. It’ll be a landslide win, with the closest opponent getting 5% of votes at best. That’s assuming they won’t fall out of a seemingly random window by then
Xi isn't a dictator for life, he still has to be re-elected by the politburo each time his term runs out. It's just that he has purge and stacked everywhere to an extent it seems impossible that he ever wont be re-elected unless something dramatic happens.
One of the Russian politicians calls this whole tendency "acclamation" - Putin is basically doing it to make everyone nod in agreement, saying that they at least don't mind him being in power; long story short, it a mental gymnastics move to push lies about legitimacy and support around the country and outside so that everyone argues over nothing instead of acting.
Well it's not Putin's fault if all the other candidates are idiots and so stupid they cannot even keep themselves from falling out of a window. Also, do you want someone suicidal to run your country? /s
Imagine if this is his way out of the war, he just loses the election (to a puppet prob) and then it's their problem. They pull out of the war and then putin says "I would never have pulled out of the war, shameful display!"
It displays those countries that have never had a strong history of democracy will struggle to not fall back into Fascism, Communism, or some form of military control via a dictatorship.
It's been interesting over my life from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the new Russia and former soviet block countries having sampled western ways.
It's been interesting to see limits on how long one can run for office in Russia was worked around with swapping roles of president and premier early on to a outright change of removing such limits.
I recall the older generations in these countries longing for the good old days of their memories when bumps in the road arise. The Soviets were some good guys they said. That was when things was great for them. Much better than the western experiment turned out.
We also see the purges throughout the Communist party in China and the removal of limits so one can become the ruler for life.
Many countries around slipped back into Fascism, Communism, dictatorships, cults of personalities, with America barely holding on to not circling down this same drain in the past few years with those wanting to see these same changes to limits and even restricting voting in a country with one of the strongest histories of voting freedom. It's been odd to see the right embrace their love for Russia when traditionally that was very not patriotic behavior that would see many blacklisted. It's a badfe of honour now for many like those that fly Nazi flags in the streets.
As the world continues to go right, it's been interesting to see how much goes wrong. I wonder if this is how things were getting in the run up to the first. world war with the chaos and extremism running amuck then.
At this point I wonder why they even have elections. I am also expecting for them soon to change their name to Democratic republic of Russia, following North Korea's lead and a couple of more outstanding democracies.
The Russian leadership seems to enjoy the thrill of doing or saying things that everyone knows is total unfettered bullshit but nobody will question for one reason or another (usually fear of defenestration).
Vladimir Putin has said he will run for president in the March 2024 election, moving the longtime Russian leader a step closer to a fifth term in office.
Putin has dominated Russia’s political system and the media for the past two decades, jailing prominent opposition politicians, such as Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin, who could challenge him on the ballot.
If he remains in power until then, his tenure will surpass even that of Joseph Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union for 29 years, making Putin the longest-serving Moscow leader since the Russian empire.
Putin, who was handed the presidency by Boris Yeltsin on the last day of 1999, has already served as the Russian leader for longer than any other ruler but Stalin, beating even Leonid Brezhnev’s 18-year tenure.
“The elections are meant to legitimise his decision to invade Ukraine,” said Andrei Kolesnikov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, based in Moscow.
The pro-war Russian nationalist and Putin critic Igor Girkin has also indicated he wants to run for president but is unlikely to be listed on the ballot given he is awaiting trial on extremism charges.
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So what would happen if one of the double got assassinated? What would the address by Putin post the death of Puin be like. Would there be conspiracies that the real Putin is a double?