Criticism of his candidacy for the next presidential election, denunciations of too expensive a life and propaganda: Vladimir Putin avoided Thursday, during four hours of questions and answers, from responding to the most prickly messages sent by Russian citizens. The president, at the head of Russia since 2000, announced at the beginning of December that he was running for his own succession during the presidential election next March, a vote which should allow him to stay in the Kremlin at least until 2030, the year of his 78 years.
“Is it possible to live on a pension of 115 euros?”
“No need to be a candidate for a new mandate. Leave room for the young people,” said an Internet user whose SMS appeared on the screens surrounding the Russian president in the Gostiny Dvor compound, near Red Square in Moscow . The theme of his succession to power, which the authorities never mention, was also addressed in the questions asked online. “Who will be president of Russia after you?” asked a citizen, according to an SMS broadcast on the screens and seen on site by an AFP journalist.
For four hours, Vladimir Putin barely mentioned the presidential election next March, a vote which should be nothing more than a simple formality in a country where the opposition has been crushed. However, concerns about the daily lives of Russians are strong in the country, against a backdrop of no prospect of ending the conflict in Ukraine and inflation once again on the rise.
“Why is your reality different from ours?”, “Vladimir Vladimirovich: please tell us, when will we live better?”, asked two Internet users. “Is it possible to live on a pension of 11,176 rubles?” (115 euros at the current rate, editor’s note), asked another citizen. Another person, living in Severodonetsk, a town conquered by the Russian army in eastern Ukraine in the summer of 2022, described their life in this city which was ravaged by fighting. “My child and I have been living without heating for two years. No one is repairing our building. There is no network. When will we live in human conditions?”
Criticism of the Russian president in the public sphere is extremely rare in Russia. Most of his best-known critics are either in prison or in exile, the repression having increased since the start of the offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.