UA “special electoral operation” takes place in Russia from March 15 to 17. The outgoing president, Vladimir Putin, is in fact the main candidate for his own succession. In a system without a political alternative, he will certainly obtain a triumphant score, which will exceed his 2018 result (77% of the vote). Thanks to the constitutional reform carried out in 2020, it will be possible for him to run for two other presidential terms, until 2036.
Two years after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is very confident: the Russian army can boast of the capture of the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, the economy is growing by 3.6%. despite Western sanctions, none of the members of the elite have deserted, the opposition is decapitated and society remains insensitive to the high human losses at the front.
The scenario of this “election” is however the most locked of all the electoral procedures that Russia has known since Putin came to power. Manipulation techniques are well-established and new ones are being added to this arsenal, such as electronic voting in around a third of Russian regions. As usual, the outgoing president does not deign to participate in the debates with the three other puppet candidates. Little known to the Russian public, the latter come from parliamentary parties aligned with Kremlin policy. As a sign of loyalty, they will not campaign in the “new territories”, these annexed Ukrainian regions, where the images show elderly people next to armed and hooded men who accompany the mobile ballot boxes for early voting. The European Union has already made it known that the vote in these territories, the entirety of which is not even controlled by Moscow, will not be recognized.
Flaws and setbacks
The electoral charade struggles to interest Russians because of the absence of any intrigue. The recent report from the officially disbanded Golos election monitoring association describes a particularly lackluster campaign. Nevertheless, the Kremlin insists on it. Unlike Ukraine, where – as a result of martial law – the presidential election was postponed indefinitely, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, had announced several months before the election was held that it would take place on the scheduled date and in compliance with all the formal procedures provided for by Russian law.
We shouldn’t be surprised. An authoritarian “personalist” political regime needs regular reconfirmation of the legitimacy and popularity of its leader. Almighty Putin seeks the acclaim of the population and its elites. Especially since its system has displayed various flaws since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, both by the poor quality of the information provided by the various special services to the president, convinced of the possibility of taking Kiyv [le nom ukrainien de Kiev] in three days, only by the setbacks of the Russian army.
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