The first round of elections for the Russian president will take place March 18. Eight candidates are running, but it is unlikely the Russian government will lessen its anti-West media crusade and “demonization” of the United States. Russia possesses huge nuclear capabilities, controls the significant share of world’s fossil fuels and holds a veto power in the UN Security Council. Possible changes in Russian foreign agenda would significantly affect the international community as a whole and in particular, the U.S.
Despite the diversity of proposed ideologies, only two out of the eight Russian candidates, Ksenia Sobchak and Grigory Yavlinsky, campaigned on a reform platform ahead of the March 18 election. The rest, including sitting president Vladimir Putin, ran on the status quo and made no overtures to improve relations between Russia and the United States.
75 percent of Russians will vote to re-elect Putin, according to recent opinion polls from TASS, a leading Russian news agency.
“In a Western, U.S. style campaign, the procedure is certain, but the result — who will win — is uncertain,” says Igor Mintusov, a political journalist, to the New York Times. “In Russia the procedure is uncertain, but the result is certain.”
The Russian election the indictment of 13 Russian citizens and entities by American special counsel Robert Mueller for meddling in the United States’ 2016 presidential election. The New York Times held an event in collaboration with The New School on Feb. 13, titled Russia and the 2016 Election: What Lines Were Crossed? Email leaks, as well as ads on social media and Facebook posts created through bot accounts, indicates Russian interference according to Times reporters Michael Schmidt, Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti.
While Americans train their focus on Russians interfering in their most recent presidential election, Russians are about to hold their own presidential election which has seen a historically large slate of candidates and even includes Kremlin’s fears of the foreign tampering. “We are to take part in protection of more than 93,000 election polls and surrounding areas together with the Interior Ministry and private security companies,” said the Chief of the National Guard, Alexei Zinin.
The authorities’ determination to maintain the integrity of the procedure is not surprising, as this will be the last elections in the political career of the leading candidate, the incumbent President Vladimir Putin. The Russian Constitution limits presidents from staying in power for more than two consecutive terms while President Vladimir Putin is currently serving his third term in office. If elected this year, Putin will be unable to run after 2024, as the constitution prohibits a president from staying in power for more than four terms overall. Generally, the term length of the Russian president is six years, extended from four years during the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, while Vladimir Putin served as prime minister.
Six parties represented in the State Duma, Russian Parliament, are unconditionally allowed to name their nominees. Non-parliament parties are required to collect at least 100,000 signatures, and independent candidates must collect at least 300,000 signatures to qualify for participation.
Although the Central Election Commission has selected 36 presidential bids out of 70 total requests, a new national maximum, 11 competitors have withdrawn. Seventeen were dismissed, for reasons ranging from the discovery of fake signatures to criminal convictions, leaving the final eight candidates. Despite the record number of participants in this democratic process, expectations of electoral turnout vary depending on the source.
80 percent of citizens plan to participate in the presidential election, according to a by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center in the early February. This figure was widely questioned by independent observers.
“Even a 60 percent turnout would need a number of artificial interventions,” said human rights advocate and journalist Grigory Melkoyants, in an interview with the Independent. This means that instead of relying on democratic habits of the population, Russian authorities have to invent creative methods of luring people into the participation.
Many cities have announced photo contests, granting iPhones for the best selfies in front of the electoral polls, the Telegraph reports. The Russian government has invited more than 500 European experts to observe election procedures, in attempts to ensure impartiality.
“At present, there are quite a few people who want to come to Russia to find any signs of illegitimacy during the upcoming elections. However, the number of people in many countries who want to learn the truth and pass it on to their fellow citizens amid the unjustified Russophobia is growing too,” said Alexey Chepa, one of the Duma deputies monitoring the experts’ arrival, in an interview with the Izvestia.
Putin is an independently nominated candidate, endorsed by 13 political parties, including the five represented in Parliament. Putin is also supported by a majority of the population, despite his lack of campaigning: he’s held no rallies, he has not taken part in any televised debates and his agenda for a fourth term is not fully clear. To some, the effective silence of Putin signals his determination to maintain the revival of traditionally Soviet “fight-the-West” attitudes, aggressively opposing the European powers and striving to bash the United States on any issue.
“Putin’s ambition, it is widely recognized, is to subvert the power of the United States, and thereby to re-establish Russia as our (more or less equal) rival, as the U.S.S.R. had been during the dangerous days of the Cold War,” said Andy Schmookler, American public speaker and a former Democratic state representative for the Virginia’s 6th congressional district.