Russia’s Wartime Economy in the Run-Up to the 2016 Presidential Election: A Critical Rebuke to Putin, Navalny and the Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin is poised to extend nearly a quarter century of rule for six more years on Sunday after wrapping up an election that gave voters no real alternatives to an autocrat who has ruthlessly cracked down on dissent.
There was no public criticism of Putin during the election that began on Friday in an environment where no one is allowed to speak. Putin’s fiercest political foe, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month, and other critics are either in jail or in exile.
The 71-year-old Russian leader faces three token rivals from Kremlin-friendly parties who have refrained from any criticism of his 24-year rule or his full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Russian President Putin claimed victory in the run-up to the election, butUkrainian drones attacked Russians in the early hours of Sunday, reminding him of the challenges faced by Moscow.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry 35 Ukrainian drones were down overnight. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties or damage.
Russia’s wartime economy has proven resilient, expanding despite bruising Western sanctions. The defense industry of Russia has grown as a key growth engine.
Vandalism in Russian Parliament during election preordained to extend Vladimir Putin’s rule: A university professor in Ekaterinburg is charged with “discrediting Russian army”
The opposition has urged Russians unhappy with Putin or the war to go to the polls at noon on Sunday. The strategy was endorsed by Navalny not long before his death.
Voting is taking place at polling stations across the vast country’s 11 time zones, in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine, and online. Despite tight controls, at least a half-dozen cases of vandalism at polling stations were reported Friday and Saturday.
A university professor in the Russian city of Ekaterinburg was imprisoned for 15 days on Saturday for attempting to throw green liquid at a ballot box. The woman was charged with “discrediting Russian army” and fined after ruining her ballot with a message, OVD-Info said.
Putin has boasted about recent gains in Ukraine, where Russian troops have made slow advances relying on their edge in firepower. Ukraine has fought back by intensifying cross-border shelling and raids, and by launching drone strikes deep inside Russia.
The air raid sirens went off multiple times in the city of Belgorod where two people were killed by Ukrainian shelling. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had thwarted attempts to enter the country by “Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups,” following claims by Ukraine-based Russian opponents of the Kremlin last week that they had made an armed incursion into the Belgorod and Kursk regions.
Source: Russians cast final ballots in election preordained to extend Vladimir Putin’s rule
Russia’s last political campaign: a protest against Vladimir Putin’s suppression of the referendum and its military mandate on the last day of Ukraine’s election
Beyond the lack of options for voters, the possibilities for independent monitoring are very limited. There were no international observers present. Only registered, Kremlin-approved candidates, or state-backed advisory bodies, can assign observers to polling stations, decreasing the likelihood of independent watchdogs.
“The stars aligned for me to show up here at noon, so I wouldn’t give away my last name out of fear of reprisals from the state” said a university student who declined to provide his last name out of fear of repercussions from the state.
In Moscow, an NPR reporter witnessed some two hundred people gather at a voting precinct shortly after noon – despite the presence of police and what appeared to be plain clothed government agents filming with cameras.
From Berlin, Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya called on her late husband’s supporters to honor his last known political plan: a symbolic protest that would see Russians swarm polling stations at noon on the last day of the vote — providing a visual counterpoint to what the opposition insists is Putin’s hollow mandate.
The group that tracks human rights says 89 Russians were taken into custody for protests related to the election.
There were concerns of vote rigging and the fact that Russia’s military was charged with securing the vote in occupied territories of Ukraine due to the election’s unusual three-day schedule.
Abbas Gallaymov, a former Kremlin speech writer who was turned government critic in exile, says the Kremlin couldn’t afford to have these candidates in the race.
Meanwhile, antiwar candidates were banned from the ballot over registration errors — undoing the will of thousands of Russians who backed their candidacies with cumbersome signature gathering campaigns.
Putin’s opponents in the race — all members of Russia’s rubber-stamp parliament — barely ran campaigns or held any rallies at all. None received more than 5% of the vote.
We have a lot of things ahead of us. But when we are consolidated — no matter who wants to intimidate or suppress us — nobody has ever succeeded. Not in history, not now, nor will they ever succeed in the future,” said Putin.
When facing threats from the West and Ukrainians, Putin said Russians rallied behind him and that was why the vote was undemocratic.
“I want to thank all of you and all citizens of the country for your support and this trust,” Putin said at campaign headquarters in Moscow early Monday.
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin won a landslide reelection victory on Sunday, taking 87% of the vote after a three-day election derided by government critics and the West as neither free nor fair.
Going into the vote, the Kremlin was believed to seek not merely victory but a historic turnout: one that showed the country more united than ever behind their leader, more than two years into the full scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s Central Elections Commission later issued data showing 77% of the country’s eligible 114 million voters had cast ballots — a new post-Soviet record.
Meanwhile, larger crowds, some in the thousands, formed outside Russian embassies around the globe — a reminder of the hundreds of thousands of Russians who fled their country in the wake of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
That was great to the delight of the Putin supporters who didn’t want to give their last names because of their work in government security services.
Russia ought to have a czar. Sergei thinks that we need a president who can manage the country, even if he is a monarch.