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Pro-Kremlin commentators hail Putin’s re-election as blow to West
from MONITOR 32
While Islamic State’s brutal attack on a concert venue near Moscow only days after the election may have suggested otherwise, President Vladimir Putin remains very much in control. His re-election was hailed by pro-Kremlin commentators as a blow to the West, while independent Russian commentators drew parallels between Putin and late Turkmen dictator Saparmurat Niyazov. Russia specialist Yaroslava Kiryukhina reports.
President Vladimir Putin’s widely expected election victory predictably sparked jubilation and early congratulations from Russian top officials and pro-Kremlin commentators.
Putin secured a fifth term in office with 87.28% of the vote, according to the final results announced on 21 March.
“Putin’s victory in the elections is a victory for all citizens of our country. The elections showed the consolidation of society, as well as the highest level of trust in Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin,” Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in a popular Telegram post (more than 870,000 views) late on 17 March.
“This is a response to those who did everything to prevent our country from becoming strong and sought to destroy it... Russia with President Putin will become even stronger,” Volodin said, without mentioning that Putin has been in power for more than two decades already.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on X: “Congratulations to all Russia’s enemies on Vladimir Putin’s brilliant victory in the Russian presidential election! And a thank you to friends for the support.”
Commenting on the refusal of Western countries to recognise the Russian election as fair and democratic, proKremlin commentator Sergei Markov said that “the West has destroyed its moral authority with its support for the clearly anti-democratic, illegal, repressive and even terrorist regime in Ukraine”.
“The opinion of the West does not matter now. And therefore Putin’s victory is a huge defeat for the West,” he said.
The Russian-language Telegram account of RT TV quoted from a column written for it by commentator Sergei Strokan: “Putin’s Russia, which they wanted to sink to the bottom, turned out to be unsinkable and capable of moving forward. Without a single hole, although they fired at it from all guns”.
“The collective West lost big, since these elections immediately rendered obsolete all attempts to cause social discontent, protest sentiments and direct them against the Russian government through an unprecedented war of sanctions,” Strokan said.Pro-Kremlin bloggers hail high turnout abroad
Pro-Kremlin bloggers hail high turnout abroad
Russian opposition figures had called on voters to gather at polling stations at noon on Sunday 17 March to vote against Putin as part of a non-violent political campaign. Instead, pro-war propagandists suggested on social media that large queues seen outside polling stations abroad were in fact Russians lining up to fulfil their civic duty and, possibly, cast their ballots for Putin.
“These videos of Russians standing in line to vote in the presidential elections are living evidence of how wrong those politicians are who, in their frenzy, in one fell swoop labelled all those who left after the start of the SVO [Russia’s war on Ukraine] as traitors,” pro-Kremlin TV correspondent Andrei Medvedev said.
Popular pro-Kremlin blogger Zergulio (Sergei Kolyasnikov) made almost 100 posts with footage of queues in various cities, saying: “Something unprecedented is happening. Nobody expected this, least of all the US and the EU. Today is a very difficult day for Russophobes and anti-Russian propagandists.”
“Some did not share the joy of such a massive vote abroad, thinking that these were oppositionists, relocants [Russians who moved abroad after Russia’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine], etc. No, my friends. Russophobes do not stand in lines for 10-12 hours to vote,” Zergulio added in a separate post.
They also sought to refute independent media claims linking noontime queues at some polling stations within Russia to opposition activity.
Thus, the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel War on Fakes claimed in a post, which garnered over 1.2 million views, that “opposition [Telegram] channels, under pressure from their own subscribers, are massively deleting fake publications about supposed queues for the ‘Noon against Putin’ rally” in several Russian regions.
The campaign did not significantly affect the turnout across Russia, independent Verstka publication reported, citing the data of the Central Electoral Commission.
Noting that Putin had reportedly received 70% of the vote abroad popular pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Readovka Explains concluded that “the current elections represent a setback for the non-systemic opposition.
“All efforts to showcase the presence of an ‘alternative’ Russia abroad have amounted to nothing,” it said.
Back to the USSR
Meanwhile, independent commentators Abbas Gallyamov and Vladimir Pastukhov drew parallels between Putin and late Turkmen dictator Saparmurat Niyazov, who referred to himself as Turkmenbashi meaning “Leader of All Turkmen”.
“Hiding behind ‘patriotism,’ the president fooled voters for many years, and now he himself has put everything in its place. No one will believe the crazy 85%. Turkmenbashi, and that’s it,” said Gallyamov.
Speaking on 17 March, before the vote had been officially counted, Pastukhov, said that if Putin achieved 87% then it would mean that “Russia has already completely integrated into the Soviet political format and that the complete restoration of all other Soviet attributes is a matter of the very near future.”
Pundit Yekaterina Shulman echoed them while questioning the election results: “[The system] is forced to show the world Turkmen electoral ornaments instead of a result that is at least somewhat plausible.”
“The West has destroyed its moral authority with its support for the clearly anti-democratic, illegal, repressive and even terrorist regime in Ukraine”
