- Steve Rosenberg
- BBC Russia Editor
February 1, 2024
Image caption,
On January 31, Putin appeared on the stage at the Moscow election headquarters, with a large number of celebrities in attendance.
In an exhibition hall opposite the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin took to the stage.
The audience stood up and applauded like thunder.
The invited guests include many Russian celebrities who support Putin’s bid for a fifth term in March’s presidential election. The audience here is very happy.
“(Putin) is an extraordinary leader, the most courageous and wise man.” Film director Andrei Konchalovsky said happily.
“The Russian people have never been so united behind their president,” said national singer Nadezhda Babkina. “Anyone who tries to stop this will fail.”
The event, and the high-profile expressions of support from celebrities, seemed to be an attempt to show that candidate Putin has his own organization: the Putin Super League.
But be aware, this is a league he founded and runs. Russia’s political system is Putin’s political system, and his rules of the game are his elections.
Putin’s sharpest critics have long since been “downgraded” and either exiled abroad or imprisoned.
Therefore, elections here are easy to predict.
image copyrightGetty Images
Image caption,
RT TV station editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan was one of the celebrities who attended Putin’s campaign.
But this is not always the case.
Thirty years ago, I remember watching the first election night broadcast on Russian television in Moscow – it was a parliamentary election and no one knew who was going to win.
I will never forget when they brought in astrologers to make political predictions. That’s actually appropriate, because 30 years ago, Russians had stars shining in their eyes about democracy, freedom and the future of their country.
For today’s Russian election, you don’t need an astrologer or a crystal ball. I can tell you the results of the 2024 presidential election right now: Putin won a resounding victory.
First, while Putin will not be the only name on the ballot, the challenger will not have his old enemies, including jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Putin versus Navalny? This is not allowed in the Putin Super League.
True, another Kremlin critic, Boris Nadezhdin, is also pushing for a vote. But Naderzdin is not Navalny, he is careful about his criticism of Putin and is believed to have connections within the presidential palace.
If he ends up running, it will be because the Kremlin believes it is in Putin’s interest to have a critical challenger.
Secondly, in Russia the government controls television stations. Putin gets a lot of air time, and he is praised on television and rarely criticized: convenient for those seeking re-election.
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Naderzdin, who criticized the invasion of Ukraine, said he had obtained enough signatures to run.
There is another reason why Putin is doing so well.
“We all support your decision to run because you have been in power for as long as I can remember,” Alexander, a young Russian television reporter, said at Putin’s year-end press conference.
I’ve met a lot of Russians like Alexander who couldn’t imagine there was anyone else in the Kremlin. This is not because they admire Putin, they just feel they have no choice.
I often hear people say, “Well, who else but Putin?”
This was carefully planned by the Kremlin. The authorities have spent nearly a quarter of a century eliminating all potential challengers from the political landscape. In this way, it ensures that there is no answer to the question “Who else could do it?”
When I talked to people in Rzhev, a city in southern Russia 225 kilometers from Moscow, about their expectations for the election, many seemed to want to see change — but not a change of leadership.
A young man named Ilya said: “I hope things will get better because they are stagnant now. But if a new person is elected, he may not be able to shoulder the heavy responsibilities of the government. An experienced person like Putin can Let the country develop even in the current difficult situation.”
Pensioner Lidiya said: “I have high hopes for the elections. I hope the war will end and the economy will improve. But I respect Putin.”
I asked, “Isn’t there anyone else who can do his job?”
Lydia replied: “Not now, maybe Putin will find the right person in the future. But I think he will be in power for a long time.”
Putin is the president and commander-in-chief of Russia. Even though the country suffered heavy military losses in the Ukrainian war, it seems that the public’s expectations of him have not been disillusioned.
It was Putin’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion, but some Russians feel they have a duty to support their country’s leaders in times of war and will not question its motives or consequences. Others accept the official narrative that it was the West, not Russia, that started the war.
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Former journalist Yekaterina Duntsova founded a new political party.
There’s a woman in Rzhev who wants to see change in the Kremlin. She is Yekaterina Duntsova, a former TV reporter and regional councillor, who recently tried to run for president. She called for peace in Ukraine, the release of political prisoners and the creation of a “humane” Russia.
Russia’s Central Election Commission refused to accept her nomination, citing errors in her documentation.
“I feel like the political system here sees me as some kind of alien species and doesn’t know what to do with me,” Duntsova said. “Because I came out of nowhere and the political system doesn’t know who I am. So it decided to reject me, Don’t pose a danger.”
Now she has launched a new political party. Isn’t she afraid of retaliation from the authorities?
“We didn’t do anything illegal. We acted within the law. As for fear, fear doesn’t control me. I believe in everything I do. That belief takes a backseat to fear.”
Returning to Putin’s campaign, I interviewed Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russia Today (RT) TV station.
I asked, “Isn’t that dangerous when a leader stays in power for a quarter of a century or more…without checks and balances?”
She replied: “This is the mantra you’ve been preaching for years. Having one person in power for a long time is not necessarily worse than having a different leader every four years. Pol Pot wiped out a third of Cambodia’s population in three years s population.”
This seemed to provide some relief.
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2024-02-01 09:45:16
