What to expect from Putin after election 'landslide' | DW News

Russians are set for another 6 years of Vladimir Putin's rule following an election widely described as a sham Putin faced no meaningful opposition in the boote the three handpicked opponents on the ballot did not campaign in his victory speech Putin said he would now focus on Ukraine following two years of a war against Russia's neighbor that was expected to last only a few days marching out to meet supporters Vladimir Putin celebrated an entirely predictable election win after securing yet another term as Russia's president he claimed the victory was due to the trust and hope Russians had placed in him first of all I want to thank the citizens of Russia we are all one team all the citizens that came to polling stations and voted [Applause] once again I want to say and this is very important the source of authority in the nation is the Russian people voters had little Choice all those who could have meaningfully challenged Putin are either jailed exiled or dead Russia's leading opposition figure Alex Nali died suddenly last month in an Arctic prison breaking his silence over naval's death Putin called it an unfortunate incident the elections have been criticized as being neither free nor fair by the US Germany and Ukraine Russian dictator is simulating another election everyone in the world understands that this figure as has often happened in history has simply become addicted to power and is doing everything he can to rule forever there is no evil he won't commit to prolong his personal power the election win appears to have emboldened Putin's plans for his war in Ukraine in his victory speech he vowed to strengthen Russia's military Putin has now been in power since 1999 if he completes his next six-year term he'll be Russia's longest serving leader in more than 200 years now I since Russian authorities closed down DW's Bureau in Moscow our bureau chief there Yuri retto has been reporting from Ria ltia and he joins us now for more so Putin has extended his rule for another six years Yuri tell us more about reactions to the Russian leaders reelection well Terry apart from the congratulations on Putin's victory in the Russian State controlled media many people in Russia reacted as they have been reacting for almost 25 years now namely not at all how should one react of something uh or to something that uh was to be expected from the beginning uh Putin himself held a press conference you mentioned it and as expected he spoke about the consolidation of the Russian people he said that all goals would be achieved he didn't talk about war but it was clear to everyone that uh what the most important goal was um Putin's three unsuccessful competitors also congratulated him uh as for the reaction uh in the Western countries neither the USA nor the EU spoke on a of a fair and free election their argument was that there is no real opposition in Russia German president steinmeier will not congratulate Putin according to his spokesperson so in his victory speech Europe what kind of vision has Putin laid out for Russia well I think Putin's vision of Russia or for Russia in the coming years is best explained by one example uh Putin appeared in his election stuff uh and thanks uh thanked his election workers he said he thanked his comrades in arms and explained the meaning of the word comrade in arms or sarnik in Russian uh in this word he said there is an old Russian word EIC and this is in turn means a fighter a simple man from a village who volunteers to go to war to Def find his Fatherland Putin said that history is repeating itself and that all Russians are now sarnik or comrades in arms uh he didn't explicitly talk about war but of course he meant War conclusion is Putin's Russia of the next few years of course is not only but above all a country at War well Putin surprised many Yuri by actually mention mention in in his uh press conference there the name of Alexa Nali the opposition figure who recently died in prison what do you make of that Yuri well I think it's bizarre that Putin never used Naval name uh when he Naval was alive and now that Naval has died uh he has mentioned his name several times um he said two important things uh firstly he said that Naval had died which was of course sad but that's life he said uh that was Putin's indirect response to the accusation that Naval had been killed and secondly uh Putin said that he was prepared to exchange him for a prisoner from another country and this statement by the Kremlin leader caused absolute outrage among naval's colleagues uh they called it a lie uh regardless of how you assess Putin's words it was a signal to the West that Russia was ready for another prison exchange Yuri thank you so much that was DW's Yuri retto in Ralia there is little doubt of course about who would win Russia's presidential election but those opposed to Vladimir Putin heeded a call by the Russian opposition movement to flood polling stations at noon on Sunday and Signal their discontent thousands also turned out to protest the election at Russian embassies around the world lines stretch into the distance outside Russia's embassies in England turkey Kazakhstan all have come to cast their vote for Russia's next president but for many it's an act of protest I didn't come to vote for anyone I came to vote against everyone thousands turned out in response to a call from the Russian opposition movement to line up at midday on the last day of Russia's tightly controlled presidential election the noon against Putin rallies were championed by Julia nalia the wife of Kremlin critic Alexi nalni who died under suspicious circumstances last month nalia joined over 2,000 Russians lining up outside their country's Embassy in b Berlin 6 hours later she cast her vote for president of course I wrote naval's surname because it just can't be so that a month before the election and during the presidential campaign Putin's main opponent already imprisoned was murdered with all of Vladimir Putin's major rivals in prison exiled or dead the outcome of this election was never in doubt but even in Russia thousands still turned out at noon on the final day of voting showing each other and the world that there are still many who oppose Putin's rule it's now been 10 years since Russia illegally annexed Crimea following an invasion follow using troops without Russian uniforms it was the beginning of a decade long war with Ukraine culminating in The full-scale Invasion two years ago its position on the Black Sea makes Crimea a strategically important asset the peninsula serves as a key base for naval fleets and is used to safeguard security interests in the region Crimea is home to both ethnic Russians and ukrainians as well as indigenous Crimean tartars and others Russia's annexation tactics there are being used to claim other territories in Ukraine for more I'm joined Now by Alexa yfo from the f abot Foundation Think Tank here in Berlin Alexa give us a sense of what life is like now in occupied Crimea and do people there today identify mainly as Russian or Ukrainian the answer depends very much on who you ask life can be very different in Crimea I mean what is true is that there has been a massive infrastructural effort by the Russian government to transform Crimea into a Riviera of hotels and tourism industry but also to refurbish the industries that have been there and there has been a promise to the crimeans that their standard of living will rise the pensions will get higher and so on some of these things happened but at the same time there was a lot of repression going on the promise of a multilingual Peninsula with Ukrainian and tatarian both still being taught in schools is not upheld and there is a lot of redistribution of wealth so if you are a businessman on Crimea chances are that your property is already or will be taken away because there is a major reshuffling of power structures on the peninsula after the annexation so it depends very much on who you ask now Vladimir Putin has extended his rule yet again the election gives the impression at least that the Russian people overwhelmingly support his policies what should we expect from Putin now that he has secured another term I think the most important learning about this election is the very high turnout and we know that the presidential Administration in Moscow was very focused on securing a high turnout because it signals a momentum of national Unity around Vladimir Putin and it seems as if this was important to actually start a new chapter of his rule of his government I mean now he can stay in power for at least six more years and obviously he is set to do something with this time um The Campaign itself was very domestic and economic policy oriented but it's clear and he said it himself the special military operation so the war on Ukraine will remain the priority so we'll probably see a continued and an escalated effort to uh subjugate Ukraine on the front does Putin face any real threats to his power at this point or does he has have every reason to feel emboldened after this election well yes and no um the regime is perfectly capable of keeping the things in control on what on one side on the other side all the things that have happened in Russia domestically were surprises uh if you think about the Mutiny of Y pin if you think about the very unexpected success of the only anti-war candidate bis Nadin you think about the lines of people who came to Alex naar if you think about this action that you just reported on U mid yesterday at noon so things are happening outside of the grasp of Kremlin Kremlin gets and becomes more and more autocratic but it loses also their capacity to forecast so on the one hand in terms of brutal power the Kremlin is on the height of its development as an autocracy on the other hand I don't think they have a lot of capacity to know what's coming to tomorrow or the day after tomorrow now the West is deeply concerned about Vladimir Putin's expansionist policies how effective would you say Western efforts are to contain Putin's Ambitions I think so far we've been and the Western governments have acted quite reactively and tactically and maybe it's time to understand that we need a strategy for maybe 7 to 10 years this will be the time frame uh in which Moscow itself will be planning the next steps so it is about containment but it's also about ramping up its own credibility the West's own credibility about being serious in terms of support for Ukraine in terms of rearmament but also in terms of follow through and economic sanctions and other instruments um it's time for strategy now alexe thank you very much for your insights that was Alexa YF from the Fred aot Foundation

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Length: 13min 33sec (813 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 18 2024