Putin usually had faked opposition, and even some illusion of election monitoring. This time around it seems there will be no illusion of having elections at all since there will be no international monitoring and seemingly not even a pretend opposition.
But I guess why would he pretend to have democracy? The Russians certainly don't buy it, and the countries that might care have already cut all ties. I wonder why he bothers to have the election charade?
Russia is a totalitarian dictatorship, why does Putin bother with silly tactics like this? A trick to try to lend an appearance of credibility to elections?
There is no question that there is no "Russian democracy". Putin is a dictator - just not one as powerful (inside his own country) as Kim or the Chinese ruling elite or Stalin/Brejnev/Hrusciov etc. For an example of this, there is public opposition to Putin in Russia (Navalny, Kasparov some years ago), and even though it is repressed (imprisoned, covertly poisoned), it is not brutally obliterated like it would be in, say, N Korea, or in Stalin's USSR.
And even in the worst dictatorships, mass public protests will almost always lead to the regime being toppled (perhaps only to be replaced by a worse regime, unfortunately, but still toppled). The population of any country is simply too huge to completely ignore, if it turns against the regime en masse.
If you don't believe any of this, then tell me - why do you think Russia is investing so much resources in internal propaganda? Why are they pretending to hold free elections? Why does Putin pretend he has a noble goal in Ukraine? It's certainly not fooling world leaders, so if his own population can't do anything about it, why even bother?
It’s curious that Putin in simultaneously able to subvert the election, but is scared enough about his flagging popularity that he feels the need to block this strategy.
This may be missing the purpose of Putin interference in western politics. He doesn't need to influence it in one specific direction or another. He only needs to turn it into a shit show. This is because his purpose is entirely to do with the domestic situation inside Russia. He needs western democracies to become shamblolic in order to perpetrate the myth that everything is fine in Russia, because democracy is a joke anyway, so no need to look behind the curtain.
I love how naive and gullible most people can be... Just google past the first result and you'll see that he is a carbon copy of putin - they are literally the two sides of the same coin. His personal views were perfectly in line with the russian leadership for the past 300 years: believed in imperialism and ethnic superiority. He played opposition for one reason and one reason alone: personal gains. He softened down his tone internationally in the past decade just to buy himself some sympathy from the west(and sadly way too many people ate it like a fresh doughnut). But he was no different. Assuming there is such a thing as opposition in russia(which, I'm sorry, I don't believe for a nanosecond), I'd argue his contribution was to further divide it.
My take on this is that the sly Putin loves to play Mr Democracy by outlining the failures of Western Democracies which Wikileaks has brought to light, not because he loves democracy but because it's that much difficult for the US and Euro democrats to criticize his constant censorship of dissenters in Russia once he can also finger their own totalitarian leanings.
Putin doesn't want to lose power. All these propaganda, military moves are to give poor people something to take their eyes and minds off the reality - him robbing the country for 30 years. If you have absolute power for long time you know what happens.
Putin has basically lied to his people about what is going on with Ukraine. But most people know what's really happening and, more importantly, the higher ups know.
Putin won't be able to launch a nuclear attack because nobody would believe that the integrity of Russia is on danger. More importantly, Russia political system is very corrupt, and they won't allow Putin to make the world a wasteland and lose their privileged life.
I predict, when all the economic restrictions unravel, Putin will step down. Either that or he'll have an accident with a bullet. Multiple times.
I think the only thing that makes sense is Putin's unchecked power (inside Russia) has essentially made him not give a damn anymore. He's rich and powerful and reaching end of his life. He might be physically ill - we don't know. And this is his chance to try to rebuild the USSR consequences be damned.
But I guess why would he pretend to have democracy? The Russians certainly don't buy it, and the countries that might care have already cut all ties. I wonder why he bothers to have the election charade?
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