Russia on the battlefield means there is only one candidate and that one winner: Vladimir Putin
Putin’s comments about the Ukraine war seem to reveal Putin’s position in the polls. In this country’s presidential election, Putin is the only candidate and he is the winner.
Official voting began in Russia on Friday morning. This voting will continue till March 17 in 11 time zones of the country. This 71-year-old former KGB lieutenant colonel is at the peak of popularity in the country despite involving Russia in war in Ukraine.
“I’m a Putin supporter,” said Lidmila Petrova, 46, shopping at one of the largest wholesale markets in southern Moscow. Of course I will vote for him.’
Putin has brought Russia from its knees to its feet, he told Reuters. Russia will defeat the West and Ukraine. You cannot defeat Russia, never.’
At this time, Lidmila also said, ‘Are you Westerners crazy? What is your work with Ukraine?’
To the West, Putin is a dictator, a war criminal, a murderer. US President Joe Biden even called Putin a ‘Crazy SOB (Son of a Beach)’ last month. According to US officials, his dictatorship reduced Russia to slavery.
According to several Russian opinion polls and interviews with several senior sources in the country, the war in Ukraine has increased Putin’s popularity in Russia and strengthened his position.
A senior Kremlin source said, ‘It was, without a doubt, a life-changing event.’
He spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, the source said.
“Putin has no rival, he has gone to a whole other level,” he told Reuters. The West made a fatal mistake by deciding to isolate Russia by imposing sanctions. Through this, he gained more popularity among the country’s people and a large section of the elite.
Special military operations
Another senior source said Putin’s tenure as leader was not a political question but a matter of his health. His health is very strong. He has virtually no visible successor.
In 2022, Russia launched an all-out attack on Ukraine, which it called a ‘special military operation’. Russia launched this military operation after eight years of conflict between pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian-backed forces in the eastern region.
In this last war, thousands of soldiers of both sides were killed and many more soldiers were injured. In addition to tens of thousands of civilian casualties, Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure have suffered billions of dollars worth of damage.
The West has sent hundreds of billions of dollars worth of humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. Western leaders have accused Putin of waging a brutal imperialist-style war in Ukraine to restore Russia’s global influence.
War with the West
Putin is presenting the war in Ukraine as Russia’s existential struggle against a declining West. He claims that after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the West has defamed Russia by illegally entering the countries of its enclave, including Ukraine.
Putin’s position has appeal among Russians who are suspicious of Western politics and intentions, not products. Many of the Kremlin’s top officials – known as Putin’s team – have been openly talking about war with NATO.
According to a survey by the Levada Center, a Russian pollster, support for Putin rose from 71 percent before the war in Ukraine to 86 percent. Putin’s popularity also increased during the annexation of Georgia in 2008 and Crimea in 2014.
Russian state television and social media campaigns portray Putin as a patriot. By contrast, Western leaders like Biden are portrayed as weak, stupid and cunning.
Alexei Levinson, head of socio-economic research at Levada, said many Russians, motivated by state propaganda, think Russia is engaged in an old battle with the West. What is happening now is a phase of that struggle.
He also said that those who expressed such sentiments in our survey consider themselves to be participants in some way in this struggle with the West. They are like football fans who imagine they are participating in the game.
Many of the war-skeptic Russian elites believe opposing the Kremlin would do more harm than good. As seen in the failed rebellion of Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary in 2023.
The plane carrying Prigogine crashed on August 25, two months after the uprising. Putin does not give any chance to the opposition. After the all-out invasion of Ukraine, the authorities have launched a crackdown on any dissent. Hundreds of people were imprisoned and protests banned for opposing the war.
Broadcasting in Russia is dominated by state media and staunchly pro-Putin. The task of the three candidates competing with Putin in the presidential election is to lose. None of them have more than 6 percent support.
Boris Nadezhdin, who was running as an anti-war candidate, was told by an election official that he should focus on his shortcomings instead of complaining. He was disqualified despite collecting thousands of voter signatures to become a candidate.
The Kremlin’s main concern is ensuring high voter turnout, six sources said. Officials of various state-owned companies have directed workers to vote. They have also been directed to submit photographs along with their ballots. Even ATM booths are reminding Russians to vote.
Russia’s divisive opposition politicians are either abroad or in prison, silent or dead. The most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, died in prison on February 16. His widow Yulia urged the Russians to appear at the polling station on March 17 at noon and show opposition.
Asked whether Putin is weak or strong, Leonid Volkov, a top aide to Navalny, said the dinosaurs were very strong before they went extinct.
He said he was attacked with a hammer after speaking to Reuters in Vilnius, Lithuania. The Kremlin has not commented on the incident.
Veteran Russian human rights activist Oleg Orlov, who was jailed for two-and-a-half years for insulting the Russian military, has compared Putin’s Russia to the novels of Franz Kafka and Vladimir Sorokin.
Those who led our country into the abyss now represent the old, worn out and obsolete, Orlov said. They have no idea about the future. They have a false image of the past, a mirage of imperial grandeur. They are taking Russia backwards, back to dystopia.
Blood and plenty
Thousands of Russian soldiers have also been killed in this war in Ukraine. Russia’s military and intelligence agencies failed to win the war in the short term. The announcement of the 2022 military gathering sparked outrage among a section of the Russian public.
But Western sanctions have so far failed to sink Russia’s economy. Putin has successfully brought hundreds of Russian troops under the treaty. At the same time, the country’s relationship with superpower China has also progressed.
Russia’s war-torn economy grew 3.6 percent last year and real wages rose 7.8 percent, according to official data. However, the country faces crises such as labor shortages, investment shortages and population decline.
According to three Russian sources, Putin believes Russia has more power and influence in Ukraine than the United States and can continue the war for several more years.
A Russian source, who did not want to be named, said that a short-term war is not a bad thing for a country’s economy. Putin can fight as long as he wants.’
