Putin’s win

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have consolidated his grip over Russia. The United Russia Party was able to secure a clear majority in the Russian parliamentary elections on Monday. The party is set to get a clear majority with 54 percent of votes and 343 out of 450 seats in the parliament. The result itself is not unexpected. The only thing surprising is the sheer scale of the victory for Putin’s United Russia Party. Around 30 percent of the remaining seats went to three parties loyal to Putin. When Putin was elected prime minister in 1999, no one expected that he would be able to be able to create a political legacy in Russia. In his early days, Putin seemed to be tempting fate by taking the kind of bold anti-American or anti-European positions that were seen in Russia in the days of the Soviet Union. With Putin a more conservative Russian nationalism was revived which remains controversial to this date. What has been most stunning is his staying power and ability to unite different factions within Russia.

Russia remains a country with a poor record on human rights. Even within the election, mild voting irregularities continued to be reported. Serious opposition parties remained out of the running and barely managed to secure more than three percent of the vote. Despite its ‘democratic’ transition, Russia remains in essence a one party state, where a small elite pursue its own interests through the state. But whatever one may say of Russia’s internal governance, it is in the field of international politics that Russia has continued to be a thorn in the path of the US and its allies. Russia’s ability to withstand the pressure over its occupation of Ukraine shows that Russia may be reviving some of its more expansionist aims. There was no relief for the resistant Chechen population, where the pro-Putin strongman Ramzan Kadyrov was able to secure a stunning 98 percent of the vote. Reform on human rights issues seems like a far away dream in Russia, with the stronger victory confirming that the iron hand of Putin remains in place. But Russia has begun to compromise on its international interests, with the recent temporary compromise over Syria showing that it may act as a true global power broker. Hate him as much as they want, the US and its allies have to live with the reality that Putin is here to stay.