Putin claims victory in Kremlin-controlled elections

2024-03-18 09:22:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Putin claims victory in Kremlin-controlled elections

Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has won a fifth term in power, in a highly controlled election process, as he aims to win popular support for the war in Ukraine and increasingly repressive policies.

Putin, 71, who has ruled as president or prime minister since 2000, is expected to surpass Josef Stalin's nearly 30-year rule when he completes this new term.

Putin will thus become Russia's longest-serving leader in more than two centuries.

After 99.68 percent of the votes were counted, Putin was said to have won 87.32 percent of the vote - a record since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The Central Electoral Committee has said that more than 70 percent of the population exercised the right to vote during the three days of the elections.

The elections held on March 15-17 are the first for Putin since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, which has left thousands of Russian citizens dead, made life difficult for tens of thousands of others, and almost completely cut ties with the West.

In holding these elections, which are considered manipulated, Putin wants to show that he has the full support of the people, experts have said.

The goal of the Kremlin "is to have support for Russia's war in Ukraine. The idea is that millions of Russians approve of Putin's decisions, which have been made in the last two years," said Maksim Trudolyubov, senior researcher at the Kennan Institute, in an article before the elections.

In several statements made shortly after the announcement of his victory, Putin said that the elections showed that the nation is "one team".

In these elections, Putin has competed with three unknown men, politicians close to the Kremlin, whose election campaigns have been little noticeable.

Independent observers have been prevented from participating in the elections, for the first time in post-Soviet history, experts have said.

Voting was also held in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, where there are hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers.

The United States has said that these elections were neither free nor fair./REL