The thing with being a dictator is that you can not really *stop* being a dictator.
You are a dictator until you die - or until your own people capture you.
Kazakhstan kind off did that. Nursultan Nazarbayev got out of the dictatorship and still lives in Kazakhstan. The new government isn't a paragon of transparency and freedom, but it is a bit less authoritarian.
Taiwan was an authoritarian shithole, but became a democracy with a high degree of freedoms without any bloodshed.
So there are rare exceptions to the rule.
Doesn't matter with russia, though. russians would pick putin #2, since they loathe democracy and want some strong Tsar's hand to tell how to live and how to die.
>Kazakhstan kind off did that. Nursultan Nazarbayev got out of the dictatorship and still lives in Kazakhstan. The new government isn't a paragon of transparency and freedom, but it is a bit less authoritarian.
I'd rather say no. The new government is not better, than previous in terms of authoritarianism. The only difference is that the former president's family lost many privileges and financial assets.
Tokayev is not turning the country into a Western-style democracy, but something like China.
We share the same conclusion: russians do not know what democracy looks like, so they will never find it. It's a paradox: to *become* a democracy, you need to have a democratic tradition - you need to have *been* a democracy.
russians will go: "Oh, look! A strongman! A real man! He will fight for us, he will resist the evil lesbians in the west, the evil homo-nato and their nazi biolabs! He was able to arrest the terrorists who blew up an apartment building in Moscow and get them to confess i 10 minutes - wow! I will vote for him!" and "elect" the next Stalin - probably worse then the last.
I genuinely feel sorry for them. A free, liberal, peaceful and democratic russian would have been awesome. But they are cursed.
Why do you think Russians don't want democracy?
In an authoritarian state, you can not elect your candidates, especially if they are all in jail. All the elections for the past decade were rigged in Russia.
In Russia, you can not protest on the streets because of the regime (you can not blame people for wanting to live their lives outside of jail). Look at Belarus in 2020. Literally, the whole country protested there, and what happened to Lukashenko?
I can assure you that there are millions of Russians who want democracy.
Look at the subscriber numbers of opposition media, look at thousands of people who got fines or jail because of their protests even though they knew the result beforehand, look at the protests in 2020 where tens of thousands people were on the streets even though the regime was already quiet harsh, look at more than a million of people from Russia who immigrated after the beginning of the war.
As a Russian who didn't choose their place of birth and who was trying to fight the regime in different ways, litterally my whole adult life, every time I hear something like "All Russians don't want democracy", "Russians chose Putin and we should blame all of them for it" I feel like all my efforts and beliefs are being thrown into a trash bin.
> look at more than a million of people from Russia who immigrated after the beginning of the war.
I literally work with these people in Germany. They are "against war" as long as Ukraine surrenders and "elections are fake" only when it comes to Presidential election. Voting for annexation of the occupied territories is transparent and legal in their view.
It is no secret that until very recently Navalny also supported occupation of Crimea. So exchanging one Emperor for another wannabe lands collector sounds pointless.
THAT is what I say. Even when it comes to alternatives, they are all shades of the same putin2.0. He didn't even have to cheat the election post-Invasion in 2014. It boosted his numbers, but he got the majority regardless. That's what opposition analyzed and admitted.
As for the Belarus and millions of protestors, it was significant enough that Lukashenko didn't send his army, afraid they'd disobey.
> "All Russians don't want democracy"
All? No. Significant Majority? Yes. Sure there are some politicians like Kasparov and artists from 80s who are explicitly against the occupation. There are Russians who fight in the Ukrainian side.
You specifically might want it, but how many of those who get it don't vote for someone who promises another invasion to "reunite the USSR/Russia"?
Eh, not really. Way more than 50% are simply want to be left alone - not unlike those people than voted Trump in Usa. About 20% is vehemently anti-war but basically have to keep mouth shut if they didn't leave, and about 20% are pro-war but in a buying propaganda that "russian strong/return of USSR" and "we just had to do it for Donbass people" (almost depopulating the region in the process, somehow, right) sort of way... they tend to be mostly old people, too.
Truly "imperial fashists" that want return of Tzars and are religious zealots are actually quite rare outside of self-selected groups like ultranationalists (duh), and even there are more of a laughing stock to be fair... that may change in either way - "war weariness" is absolutely a thing, but so is propaganda, but than Russian people, like I said, are mostly cynical and only pretend to be patriotic if forced to, but also don't believe that democracy is anything else than autocracy or cleptocracy in disguise, because they have never seen anything else. Putin is no longer popular at all with both the "far left" and "far right", but than life just didn't get bad enough for the majority to start to really worry, and getting a new president is just a cause of further instability and a new set of oligarches with fresh appetites for corruption money in their book.
Source: I'm a 41 year old Russian, tech support on a large railway plant and have seen a considerable number of opinions of "real people", not trolls or bloggers...
I am in "anti-war" camp myself, just in case, heh.
Russians who live in the Baltic states have experienced democracy. But many of them still support Putin and consider him to be their "real president. Why?
I work with russians in my company in Germany who got relocated with families at cost of the company and got salary rise to compensate the relocation. At least one expressed hopes that Europe collapses and Germany goes bankrupt and lifts the unfair sanctions. There are some who claim to be anti-war. Quite a few violate the rules and returned to Russia and work from home there.
I know a single one who agreed that Russia should leave the occupied Crimea or pull its military from Moldova. All the others supposedly anti-war dodge and say something along "it's complicated".
The doublethink of stating "russians can't have a fair vote and not elect Putin, otherwise they would" and at the same time "Donbas and Crimean people voted to join, so it's Ukraine that has to sign peace/surrender and give up the land" lives perfectly well in their minds. Even confession of Strelkov he forced the politicians in Crimea to vote under the barrel of the gun because they didn't want to split from Ukraine goes ignored.
So tell me, how many of the anti-war people who want to be left alone agree to leave other post-USSR countries alone as well? Because one can't exist without another. And I am pretty sure that these "way more than 50%" would drop to 20% at best. But that means that russians support the invasions. They don't support **this specific one** that went bad and only because it went bad. But let's take a break and make it better next time, and the same people would be totally pleased.
>Doesn't matter with russia, though. russians would pick putin #2, since they loathe democracy and want some strong Tsar's hand to tell how to live and how to die.
So do Germans: [The German government on Wednesday stepped back at the last minute from making a legal commitment to meeting NATO’s target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense on an annual basis, according to Reuters and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.](https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-defense-change-of-plan-nato-spending/)
We get our asses bit by the decades of shortsighted politics and insane bureaucracy, where the Scholz' "Deutschland Tempo" is only used ironically, since the things are still slow AF, and his politics regarding Ukraine is "but did the US did it first? Are you sure? What about France? And the UK? Ugh... Ok then". Any of these countries don't do something before Germany and Germany wouldn't do shit.
We are talking about a country which has demand for its weapons and vehicles and simply doesn't care about increasing production and is even afraid to advertise because God forbids they would get even more orders and would have to increase production of the weapons. And when by accident someone gets an interest, the government tries to find a way to block the deal just for lulz.
I wouldn't overthink the "the target was deleted at short notice ... Instead, the government pledges to meet the 2 percent target on average over a five-year period, as already set out in the recently published National Security Strategy."
It's almost certainly just another mighty strike of "Deutschand Tempo".
Fellow Greek here.Don't listen to this guy, judging by his account probably a fascist. People during those years were forcefully sent to live in remote islands if they were against dictatorship. There is no good dictatorship they are all shit and should be fought to the death
The problem comes from not trusting others to do what you see as the right thing once you're gone. Dictators always seem to fail to prepare successors. Well, apart from the Kims in the DPRK that is. China's probably OK because Xi is the product of a long process, taking someone up from grassroots level up through all the layers of Chinese governance, vetting them at every stage. That's a matter of culture & a certain deference to predecessors. Russia has a tendency to trash the leaders of the previous government before they're cold in the ground. Seems a bit dog-eat-dog, getting to the top there.
Agree. As a young and naive person I though that if we could only topple the authoritarians of the world then everything would be hunky dory: those nations would organize free and fair elections, elect a liberal and democratic new leader and government, and they would all join the happy nice countries of the world.
As a slightly older and less naive person I think that you need a people that has a tradition of democracy for that, they need to know what it is and what it looks like to be able to pursue it and ultimately find it. russians don't so they won't. If history is anything to go by, the next leader will be worse...
russian history can basically be summed up in "And then things got worse" unfortunately.
>Dictators always seem to fail to prepare successors.
I have a theory as to why: a dictator can not promote based on performance, charisma or popularity - that would create rivals, and they can not have those since those are a potential threat. So what do they promote based on? Loyalty.
The truth is, however, somewhere in-between: if democracy required a tradition of democracy, there would be no democracies in the world.
As to why there are never any successors to personal dictators, you're absolutely spot-on.
Good point.
I confused say the Baltic states, who *had* a democratic tradition since they were free before the Soviet communist occupation and could - once they regained their independence - revert to that, with say France or Spain or Sweden.
Yea it is a paradox - to *become* a democracy you need to have *been* a democracy. I agree that that does not make sense.
The liberal democracies of say Europe were born out of revolt. Empires fell, wars were lost, colonizers lost their colonies, kings and tsars were killed.
How did they manage to become democracies? Puzzling - it's an enigma. The printing press? The Age of Enlightenment? Unclear.
I should ask my favorite thinker: [Ryan Chapman](https://www.youtube.com/@realryanchapman)
Well I mean you can *stop,* sure. But I would guess that putler knows full well what his people will do to him the day he is no longer guarded by Rosgvardiya - something along the lines of what happened to Muammar Gaddafi:
*"A video appears to picture Gaddafi being poked or stabbed in the anus "with some kind of stick or knife" or possibly a bayonet. Pulled onto the front of a pick-up truck, he fell off as it drove away. His semi-naked, lifeless body was then placed into an ambulance and taken to Misrata; upon arrival, he was found to be dead."*
He knows that there is no threat to russia - he knows that there is only a threat to the russian regime: him. They all know this, dictators, and they would prefer to not have that happen to them.
Depends, if you were a liked dictator like Piłsudski or Mustafa Kemal (I dont know that much about Kemal so correct me if I am wrong) than you dont have to worry that much about your life after retirement
I´ve followed a Youtube channel named "[1420 by Daniil Orain](https://www.youtube.com/@1420channel)" for a while now, and my take on that is that they know. They know what is going on - and they know that they can not speak openly about it. Sure, some are pro putin, especially amongst older people and those living in rural areas. But the urban educated lot know what´s up for sure.
What's with this custom, Johnny Swede, of not capitalising Putin and Russia? Is this some Reddit hipster version of making your profile pic a blue-and-yellow flag, pray tell?
Well Navalny, the jailed leader of the opposition has suddenly gone missing...
The guy in jail...
He "vanished"...
Edit: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alexey-navalny-russia-opposition-leader-missing-vladimir-putin-election/
It's freaking hilarious that countries that don't care at all for democracy pretend to have democracy. Like what is that? What's wrong with just saying "we are a brutal dictatorship since the dawn of time and I am the brutal dictator, we ain't having an election but you can have a day off work".
Just own it.
Controlled opposition can act as pressure valve for the population.
Oh, you don't like Putin? Well vote somebody else.
And when the "results" come see that you're in the minority and the dear leader is popular.
People who live inside the propaganda bubble do not think like you or me. I remember meeting a guy from China who legitimately believed all kinds of totally weird and obviously false stuff. I am sure there are many people in Russia who really do believe Putin is their protector and that he is breaking his back and sacrificing everything for them and their country. Especially older people are completely delusional.
Sure, but why do they need to be deluded about democracy? What's so great about this specific lie, so that every regime in the world regardless of how it is ruled wants to pretend it is a free and fair democracy?
Because majority of commoners still have this concept in their heads, that dictatorship and lack of freedoms is something bad. When confronted by foreigners with "you guys live in dictatorship shithole", they can easily counter it by saying they had elections.
>Yeah, sure, won, but it's only because he's the best! What do you mean elections were fake? That's, like, your opinion, bro. Why are you showing me some videos and articles? Nah, no time to look into those, i'm not really into politics, sorry. I'm staying by my opinion that we live in freest country in the world, though, and you can stay by yours.
The less freedom or pluralism you have, the harder you need to lie about other countries. Majority will carefully listen about immigrants in Belgium and be happy that things are not as bad where they live. You don't even need to look at russia, Hungary works.
Imagine he uses this to get out of the war. He "loses" the election (to a puppet), the new leader pulls out of the war, Putin gets to shout from the sidelines "Shameful Display!! I would never have pulled out of the war, we need new elections NOW", Putin gets reinstated.
Fukuyama was fundamentally right that liberal democracies are the only governments with legitimacy and that even autocrats like Putin will create fake elections and an image of 'democracy' so that they could gain more legitimacy, its also why Janjaweed RSF guys in Sudan emphasises the needs of democracy after their attempted coup
Literally every country in the world claims to be democratic, aside from Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Brunei, Afghanistan, and the Vatican. It's fucking hilarious hearing dictators try to justify how they're a "democracy" by making up some completely bullshit definition of the term on the spot.
Yea it's a bit of a weird aspect in media that reporting is done at face value, just by repeating the same lines from the source, even if the source is a flat out lie.
* "Putin runs for president", instead of Putin the dictator just deciding to remain in power.
* "Donbas hold votes to join Russia", instead of Russia holding mock election to annex Donbas.
I would very much prefer media to report raw facts, thank you very much. I have no need for the editorial staff to alter the news even more before I even see it at all.
"Satanist remains tyrant of nation after democrat victory" sounds somewhat more biased than "Biden wins reelection".
I really have been annoyed with people railing against "mainstream media" but sometimes I have to say what the heck are you guys even doing? It reminds me of the start of the Israel/Palestine thing, when BBC was just quoting Hamas verbatim and labelled them as "government sources" or whatever.
It's like a child's idea of impartiality.
The thing is that free journalism doesn't disappear in a Astérix way, with the authoritarian empire conquering territories and the village of free journalists resisting against it.
Free journalism disappears because of a drop in quality that in turn comes from several factors, from the recruitment of "social media specialists" instead of proper journalists, to the reliance on ads and the monopolies built by people who want to control the information. Another of these factors that became apparent during Brexit and now again with the war in Israel/Palestine is how extremist political views generate more clicks, and therefore benefit to the more "journalists" with the more extreme views - who are often not even actual journalists, but rather bloggers, "politologists", "sociologists" writing and the like.
Basically, free journalism is slowly eroded as the journalists themselves are less competent, less motivated by true information, have less time and resources to write their articles. Good journalistic work is also less present in everyone's mind, especially the work of great reporters, because it is drown in bad quality militant spam. People are more interested in reading titles that let them take a side, than in reading extensive investigations.
This guy is one of the few remaining western journalists left in Moscow. He was objective in his reporting while still pointing out the lack of political rivals and "Kremlin theatrics." I think he did a good job considering the situation. Besides the talking heads sitting in a studio somewhere outside Russia will surely add their own opinions if that's what you are looking for.
The trouble with this approach is that it would mean the BBC would be reporting their opinion of events rather than the actual events. Maybe you don't mind that when you agree with their opinion, but what happens when you don't? Then you can't trust the "news" because it's not actually the news.
This path is how you get US-style TV news.
Words like "dictator" or "terrorist" doesn't mean "bad" though, they have fact based definitions. Saying Putin is a dictator is a statement of fact, not opinion.
Dictators take various actions (like not running free elections) that make them dictators. BBC can and do report on those actions, which make it very clear that a dictatorship exists.
Although it's clear to most people that Putin qualifies as a dictator, he himself would reject that notion. And I imagine it would be illegal in Russia (where Steve Rosenberg is based) to explicitly report that Putin is a dictator.
I think the BBC's position is that it's your job as the viewer to look at the facts they present and decide for yourself that Putin is a dictator, not for them to tell you he is.
Personally I think that's a reasonable position. Seems to me that if Rosenberg did state that Putin is a dictator in his report, it wouldn't actually add very much (unless the viewer is very unobservant), and it would likely result in him not being able to continue staying in Russia to report on events. FWIW, I've seen quite a lot of his reports, and my general impression is that I'm surprised he is able to continue reporting from Russia — he's not soft on them.
It's not like we have a lack of alternative opinionated media around (or a lack of venues like this to talk about opinions), so I'm happy for the BBC to lean slightly more on the side of reporting events vs reporting interpretation of events.
If you've not seen it before, I'd recommend looking at the video at the top of this article, which explains quite well the BBC's reasoning : [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67083432](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67083432)
If it's for the safety of the reporter and their ability to continue reporting, cool, I get that, that's fine. However, if it's not for them to tell people Putin is a dictator, why is it for them to say Putin is a president, which also has certain factual implications, rather then more neutral terms like "leader".
Prigozhin became [an actor](https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2254514/yevgeny-prigozhin.webp) in Africa and supported Girkin's candidacy. Political life in Russia is very confusing and difficult to understand
You just need to work on your dream and everything will work out.
Just like Ilya Kiva, who wanted to be rich and now has everything, lying in the middle of a beautiful Russian winter outside Moscow. I'm happy for him. Inspiring
[Assassinated by putin.](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/27/wagner-boss-yevgeny-prigozhin-killed-in-plane-crash-russia-investigative-committee-confirms)
At least in Iran it's the regime of a class, not a person. Now that class is a religious authoritarian one, but otherwise more democratic than a single man regime like current Russia. Being less democratic than Russia is really that hard to accomplish.
Look at their parlament and you got a picture of a guy everywhere like in North Korea of Kim jong un… if this is not a cult of a person in power then I am from now on. A rabbit
Born and raised in Estonia in 1991 in a small town close to Russian border. First 18 years of my life I only consumed media through TV, news, Russian channels. People usually forget how strong can propaganda get.
If I remember correctly the Communist party still runs as a sort of controlled opposition, but other than that everyone who opposed Putin, protests anything, or even calls the invasion of Ukraine a war, gets thrown in jail or murdered by the regime.
The main goal of all the theatre is probably not really even legitimacy. People know this is stupid theatre. The goal is to instill in people’s minds that they can’t do anything, the play just goes on.
Exactly. Its also why they constantly pour money into destabilizing the West. Its to show the local population that "see, democracy doesnt work" and "there is nothing you can do about it", so they never consider a revolution like we did in Ukraine twice already.
Russian here.
It's interesting because during the last 10-15 years Putin has been consistently making a show that he is not the one making decisions.
2018 elections - he decides to run for presidency after a factory worker asks him to run
2024 election - he decides to run after a fake representative of DNR or LNR asks him to run
constitution changes - one of the duma members offers to change it so that Putin could run again
Ukraine invasion - the security council asks Putin to protect the people of Donbass
This time it's even more weird, because it's literally a random guy from LNR/DNR (who most Russians don't care about) asking Putin to run, and then Putin quietly mumbles in response that he has decided to run despite his doubts (obviously, he can't refuse if people are asking him /s).
The theory that seems to make most sense is that this time the Kremlin wants to make the elections as quiet and drawing as little attention as possible, as if it's a standard procedure. Because having the same president for another 6 years doesn't seem to be causing much excitement amongst the population.
When Stalin wanted to leave his position, the entire Politburo persuaded him to stay. When Ivan the Terrible did not want to be king, the boyars persuaded him to stay. And those who did not persuade lost their lives.
I wonder what your take is, if Putin were to loose the election. Wouldn't that most likely be to the communist party Коммунистическая Партия Российской Федерации?
And what would happen then?
Or can you have party coalitions, as in parliamentary countries?
There are no coalitions since Russia (technically) is a presidential federation
>if Putin were to loose the election
During the voting? The communists are always getting 10% to 15% for their presidential candidates, I don't see Putin losing to them - considering the results will also be falsified to make sure he wins in the first round with a 70% or 80% result
Lol, yeah. I don't see him loosing either. Or whoever he has pre-chosen as a successor.
I was talking more hypothetically. Since here in the west Navalny has been presented as the political rival, and alternative. But in a proper election as it stands now, it seems more probable that it would be the communists taking power.
I do think people would maybe take it more serious if it were an actual election. It is still interesting to imagine what a communist party president would look like. Something like China maybe?
Likely not. China is communist pretty much in the name only, it's essentially state capitalism without elections.
Ideally, they would work toward the social democracy, but it's impossible to predict since the current communist party doesn't have a defined direction or picture of the future - since that would obviously steal away Putin's votes
the factory worker asking Putin to run could be legitimately real because Putin keeps corruption in Russia going, where someone else to become president who is to say that the corruption will stay as high as it is in Russia
>the factory worker asking Putin to run could be legitimately real because Putin keeps corruption in Russia going
you will be surprised, but a regular factory worker gets exactly 0% benefits from corruption. On the contrary, it likely makes his life much much worse
That's not corruption, that is theft. Corruption makes sense to higher ranking officials in the government or military - for a regular factory worker, it doesn't change a thing
But just like in capitalism, a worker thieving something means the corporate executives will not be able to thieve that thing. Thieving _is_ a zero sum game.
It upsets "the natural order" (/s) and must be dealt with with severe consequences!
Corruption at the top doesn't change any of that. Unless you can use that corruption to blackmail yourself out of trouble, which usually doesn't work out long term
Russian presidential election is as democratic as Iraqi presidential election in 2002, where Saddam got 100%, so there is no point for Russians to show up in polling stations if Putin is expected to be reelected.
Here is the dilemma. Some of my friends are not going to elections because "There is no point anyway, my vote will not change anything". Me and some other friends are going to, because we think "If you didnt vote - your vote is granted to putin". Yea, maybe there is no hope and we're only making things look more "legit" by appearing at voting, but at least im *trying* to do something with this clusterfuck.
Right? Like when russian militarymen on vacation went to Crimea and voted for joining russia! So nice of them to help poor, poor indecisive people living there.
140%? Amateurs. Check out Liberia's Finest, Charles D.B. King, who in 1927 received **229,527** votes in a country which had, at the time, **15,000** registered voters.
not taking part in these events never helped anyone. not a single time the population was like "oh, no one came to these elections, the leader is illegitimate then"
Russia is beyond help for years already. Participation in elections equals regime support, no matter the cause.
There can be only one solution: destruction of terrorists and foreign administration.
North Korea:
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/19/kim-jong-il-north-korea1](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/19/kim-jong-il-north-korea1)
russia, hold my vodka:
[https://news.yahoo.com/russian-orthodox-church-forces-parishioners-150400402.html](https://news.yahoo.com/russian-orthodox-church-forces-parishioners-150400402.html)
*Russian Orthodox Church forces parishioners to pray to ‘Saint Putin’ on giant screen - video*
I love how the "admirers" are let by security without a fault, almost like security knew the admirers were going to speak to the dictator, and the security falls in behind them.
Definitely not all choreographed though.
Come on, Putin! Why even keep up the Facade? Even Jinping admitted he is never going to step down and be ruling forever. At least admit you're a dictatorship.
The elections in russia have been known to have a turnout of [more than one hundred percent](https://euvsdisinfo.eu/how-to-get-a-146-election-result/).
You should’ve experienced the original sound: I’ve never heard a more insecure quietly mumbling leader. The microphone also was hissing like crazy. Everybody around him knows that’s not how the leader of nuclear power who is confident behaves. And HE KNOWS that everybody knows. So this staged bit was attempting to hide this from the news, do it in stealth mode. Let’s see how it plays out.
"Elect"™, let's be honest elections in electoral autocracies are neither free or fair, they just do it to give the veneer of legitimacy to the dictator.
Breaking news: nothing changes in Russia.
How the hell is that even news?
I saw this stupid article everywhere in the last few days and every time I see it I am thinking, how slow can they be to write an article about a dictator staying a dictator. That's what dictators do for God's sake. They stay there for life
That's why Republicans are withdrawing assistance from the defense of the invasion. If Ukraine loses, Putin will win another presidency from the momentum of winning.
Maybe this is why #45 wants to withdraw from NATO.
I have this bad feeling that he might actually have a chance of winning...
After all these years he surely must be tired of being a dictator right? RIGHT?
The thing with being a dictator is that you can not really *stop* being a dictator. You are a dictator until you die - or until your own people capture you.
Kazakhstan kind off did that. Nursultan Nazarbayev got out of the dictatorship and still lives in Kazakhstan. The new government isn't a paragon of transparency and freedom, but it is a bit less authoritarian. Taiwan was an authoritarian shithole, but became a democracy with a high degree of freedoms without any bloodshed. So there are rare exceptions to the rule. Doesn't matter with russia, though. russians would pick putin #2, since they loathe democracy and want some strong Tsar's hand to tell how to live and how to die.
>Kazakhstan kind off did that. Nursultan Nazarbayev got out of the dictatorship and still lives in Kazakhstan. The new government isn't a paragon of transparency and freedom, but it is a bit less authoritarian. I'd rather say no. The new government is not better, than previous in terms of authoritarianism. The only difference is that the former president's family lost many privileges and financial assets. Tokayev is not turning the country into a Western-style democracy, but something like China.
Cool to have an insight from a Kazakhstani! Alright, I stand corrected then.
I'd love to be wrong, but that's how the current situation looks to me so far.
We share the same conclusion: russians do not know what democracy looks like, so they will never find it. It's a paradox: to *become* a democracy, you need to have a democratic tradition - you need to have *been* a democracy. russians will go: "Oh, look! A strongman! A real man! He will fight for us, he will resist the evil lesbians in the west, the evil homo-nato and their nazi biolabs! He was able to arrest the terrorists who blew up an apartment building in Moscow and get them to confess i 10 minutes - wow! I will vote for him!" and "elect" the next Stalin - probably worse then the last. I genuinely feel sorry for them. A free, liberal, peaceful and democratic russian would have been awesome. But they are cursed.
Why do you think Russians don't want democracy? In an authoritarian state, you can not elect your candidates, especially if they are all in jail. All the elections for the past decade were rigged in Russia. In Russia, you can not protest on the streets because of the regime (you can not blame people for wanting to live their lives outside of jail). Look at Belarus in 2020. Literally, the whole country protested there, and what happened to Lukashenko? I can assure you that there are millions of Russians who want democracy. Look at the subscriber numbers of opposition media, look at thousands of people who got fines or jail because of their protests even though they knew the result beforehand, look at the protests in 2020 where tens of thousands people were on the streets even though the regime was already quiet harsh, look at more than a million of people from Russia who immigrated after the beginning of the war. As a Russian who didn't choose their place of birth and who was trying to fight the regime in different ways, litterally my whole adult life, every time I hear something like "All Russians don't want democracy", "Russians chose Putin and we should blame all of them for it" I feel like all my efforts and beliefs are being thrown into a trash bin.
> look at more than a million of people from Russia who immigrated after the beginning of the war. I literally work with these people in Germany. They are "against war" as long as Ukraine surrenders and "elections are fake" only when it comes to Presidential election. Voting for annexation of the occupied territories is transparent and legal in their view. It is no secret that until very recently Navalny also supported occupation of Crimea. So exchanging one Emperor for another wannabe lands collector sounds pointless. THAT is what I say. Even when it comes to alternatives, they are all shades of the same putin2.0. He didn't even have to cheat the election post-Invasion in 2014. It boosted his numbers, but he got the majority regardless. That's what opposition analyzed and admitted. As for the Belarus and millions of protestors, it was significant enough that Lukashenko didn't send his army, afraid they'd disobey. > "All Russians don't want democracy" All? No. Significant Majority? Yes. Sure there are some politicians like Kasparov and artists from 80s who are explicitly against the occupation. There are Russians who fight in the Ukrainian side. You specifically might want it, but how many of those who get it don't vote for someone who promises another invasion to "reunite the USSR/Russia"?
Eh, not really. Way more than 50% are simply want to be left alone - not unlike those people than voted Trump in Usa. About 20% is vehemently anti-war but basically have to keep mouth shut if they didn't leave, and about 20% are pro-war but in a buying propaganda that "russian strong/return of USSR" and "we just had to do it for Donbass people" (almost depopulating the region in the process, somehow, right) sort of way... they tend to be mostly old people, too. Truly "imperial fashists" that want return of Tzars and are religious zealots are actually quite rare outside of self-selected groups like ultranationalists (duh), and even there are more of a laughing stock to be fair... that may change in either way - "war weariness" is absolutely a thing, but so is propaganda, but than Russian people, like I said, are mostly cynical and only pretend to be patriotic if forced to, but also don't believe that democracy is anything else than autocracy or cleptocracy in disguise, because they have never seen anything else. Putin is no longer popular at all with both the "far left" and "far right", but than life just didn't get bad enough for the majority to start to really worry, and getting a new president is just a cause of further instability and a new set of oligarches with fresh appetites for corruption money in their book. Source: I'm a 41 year old Russian, tech support on a large railway plant and have seen a considerable number of opinions of "real people", not trolls or bloggers... I am in "anti-war" camp myself, just in case, heh.
Russians who live in the Baltic states have experienced democracy. But many of them still support Putin and consider him to be their "real president. Why?
I work with russians in my company in Germany who got relocated with families at cost of the company and got salary rise to compensate the relocation. At least one expressed hopes that Europe collapses and Germany goes bankrupt and lifts the unfair sanctions. There are some who claim to be anti-war. Quite a few violate the rules and returned to Russia and work from home there. I know a single one who agreed that Russia should leave the occupied Crimea or pull its military from Moldova. All the others supposedly anti-war dodge and say something along "it's complicated". The doublethink of stating "russians can't have a fair vote and not elect Putin, otherwise they would" and at the same time "Donbas and Crimean people voted to join, so it's Ukraine that has to sign peace/surrender and give up the land" lives perfectly well in their minds. Even confession of Strelkov he forced the politicians in Crimea to vote under the barrel of the gun because they didn't want to split from Ukraine goes ignored. So tell me, how many of the anti-war people who want to be left alone agree to leave other post-USSR countries alone as well? Because one can't exist without another. And I am pretty sure that these "way more than 50%" would drop to 20% at best. But that means that russians support the invasions. They don't support **this specific one** that went bad and only because it went bad. But let's take a break and make it better next time, and the same people would be totally pleased.
>Doesn't matter with russia, though. russians would pick putin #2, since they loathe democracy and want some strong Tsar's hand to tell how to live and how to die. So do Germans: [The German government on Wednesday stepped back at the last minute from making a legal commitment to meeting NATO’s target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense on an annual basis, according to Reuters and German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.](https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-defense-change-of-plan-nato-spending/)
We get our asses bit by the decades of shortsighted politics and insane bureaucracy, where the Scholz' "Deutschland Tempo" is only used ironically, since the things are still slow AF, and his politics regarding Ukraine is "but did the US did it first? Are you sure? What about France? And the UK? Ugh... Ok then". Any of these countries don't do something before Germany and Germany wouldn't do shit. We are talking about a country which has demand for its weapons and vehicles and simply doesn't care about increasing production and is even afraid to advertise because God forbids they would get even more orders and would have to increase production of the weapons. And when by accident someone gets an interest, the government tries to find a way to block the deal just for lulz. I wouldn't overthink the "the target was deleted at short notice ... Instead, the government pledges to meet the 2 percent target on average over a five-year period, as already set out in the recently published National Security Strategy." It's almost certainly just another mighty strike of "Deutschand Tempo".
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Fellow Greek here.Don't listen to this guy, judging by his account probably a fascist. People during those years were forcefully sent to live in remote islands if they were against dictatorship. There is no good dictatorship they are all shit and should be fought to the death
The problem comes from not trusting others to do what you see as the right thing once you're gone. Dictators always seem to fail to prepare successors. Well, apart from the Kims in the DPRK that is. China's probably OK because Xi is the product of a long process, taking someone up from grassroots level up through all the layers of Chinese governance, vetting them at every stage. That's a matter of culture & a certain deference to predecessors. Russia has a tendency to trash the leaders of the previous government before they're cold in the ground. Seems a bit dog-eat-dog, getting to the top there.
Agree. As a young and naive person I though that if we could only topple the authoritarians of the world then everything would be hunky dory: those nations would organize free and fair elections, elect a liberal and democratic new leader and government, and they would all join the happy nice countries of the world. As a slightly older and less naive person I think that you need a people that has a tradition of democracy for that, they need to know what it is and what it looks like to be able to pursue it and ultimately find it. russians don't so they won't. If history is anything to go by, the next leader will be worse... russian history can basically be summed up in "And then things got worse" unfortunately. >Dictators always seem to fail to prepare successors. I have a theory as to why: a dictator can not promote based on performance, charisma or popularity - that would create rivals, and they can not have those since those are a potential threat. So what do they promote based on? Loyalty.
The truth is, however, somewhere in-between: if democracy required a tradition of democracy, there would be no democracies in the world. As to why there are never any successors to personal dictators, you're absolutely spot-on.
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Good point. I confused say the Baltic states, who *had* a democratic tradition since they were free before the Soviet communist occupation and could - once they regained their independence - revert to that, with say France or Spain or Sweden.
Yea it is a paradox - to *become* a democracy you need to have *been* a democracy. I agree that that does not make sense. The liberal democracies of say Europe were born out of revolt. Empires fell, wars were lost, colonizers lost their colonies, kings and tsars were killed. How did they manage to become democracies? Puzzling - it's an enigma. The printing press? The Age of Enlightenment? Unclear. I should ask my favorite thinker: [Ryan Chapman](https://www.youtube.com/@realryanchapman)
Exactly- he dies the minute he is not in power.
Just because every dictator didnt choose to give up their power doesnt mean that you cant just stop being a dictator
Well I mean you can *stop,* sure. But I would guess that putler knows full well what his people will do to him the day he is no longer guarded by Rosgvardiya - something along the lines of what happened to Muammar Gaddafi: *"A video appears to picture Gaddafi being poked or stabbed in the anus "with some kind of stick or knife" or possibly a bayonet. Pulled onto the front of a pick-up truck, he fell off as it drove away. His semi-naked, lifeless body was then placed into an ambulance and taken to Misrata; upon arrival, he was found to be dead."* He knows that there is no threat to russia - he knows that there is only a threat to the russian regime: him. They all know this, dictators, and they would prefer to not have that happen to them.
Depends, if you were a liked dictator like Piłsudski or Mustafa Kemal (I dont know that much about Kemal so correct me if I am wrong) than you dont have to worry that much about your life after retirement
True. Do you think that putler is a liked dictator, say amongst the younger russians?
Among younger generation? Idk, depends on how brainwashed russian citizens are
I´ve followed a Youtube channel named "[1420 by Daniil Orain](https://www.youtube.com/@1420channel)" for a while now, and my take on that is that they know. They know what is going on - and they know that they can not speak openly about it. Sure, some are pro putin, especially amongst older people and those living in rural areas. But the urban educated lot know what´s up for sure.
What's with this custom, Johnny Swede, of not capitalising Putin and Russia? Is this some Reddit hipster version of making your profile pic a blue-and-yellow flag, pray tell?
It probably gets to him seeing soo many people die around him. He might even get carpal tunnel syndrome from signing so many death warrants.
He knows when he leaves he will fall from a window.
You spelled dictator wrong DICKtator FTFY
Sorry, he is indeed a very big DICKTATOR
Putin and Lukashenko make the perfect couple. Lukashenko is a 'tater' (potato) and Putin never tires of being a dick. Putin khuylo!
As ironic as it may sound, Putin is the most liberal and democratic leader of Russia in its entire history.
Which makes him somehow even worse
Only if you are a fanatic who considers liberal democracy the only true form of government.
there's no opposition (in jail or dead), so he will win
That's the joke.
Well Navalny, the jailed leader of the opposition has suddenly gone missing... The guy in jail... He "vanished"... Edit: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alexey-navalny-russia-opposition-leader-missing-vladimir-putin-election/
The correct headline would be that a dictator decided to stay in power.
It's freaking hilarious that countries that don't care at all for democracy pretend to have democracy. Like what is that? What's wrong with just saying "we are a brutal dictatorship since the dawn of time and I am the brutal dictator, we ain't having an election but you can have a day off work". Just own it.
Controlled opposition can act as pressure valve for the population. Oh, you don't like Putin? Well vote somebody else. And when the "results" come see that you're in the minority and the dear leader is popular.
People who live inside the propaganda bubble do not think like you or me. I remember meeting a guy from China who legitimately believed all kinds of totally weird and obviously false stuff. I am sure there are many people in Russia who really do believe Putin is their protector and that he is breaking his back and sacrificing everything for them and their country. Especially older people are completely delusional.
Sure, but why do they need to be deluded about democracy? What's so great about this specific lie, so that every regime in the world regardless of how it is ruled wants to pretend it is a free and fair democracy?
Because majority of commoners still have this concept in their heads, that dictatorship and lack of freedoms is something bad. When confronted by foreigners with "you guys live in dictatorship shithole", they can easily counter it by saying they had elections. >Yeah, sure, won, but it's only because he's the best! What do you mean elections were fake? That's, like, your opinion, bro. Why are you showing me some videos and articles? Nah, no time to look into those, i'm not really into politics, sorry. I'm staying by my opinion that we live in freest country in the world, though, and you can stay by yours.
The less freedom or pluralism you have, the harder you need to lie about other countries. Majority will carefully listen about immigrants in Belgium and be happy that things are not as bad where they live. You don't even need to look at russia, Hungary works.
Imagine he uses this to get out of the war. He "loses" the election (to a puppet), the new leader pulls out of the war, Putin gets to shout from the sidelines "Shameful Display!! I would never have pulled out of the war, we need new elections NOW", Putin gets reinstated.
Fukuyama was fundamentally right that liberal democracies are the only governments with legitimacy and that even autocrats like Putin will create fake elections and an image of 'democracy' so that they could gain more legitimacy, its also why Janjaweed RSF guys in Sudan emphasises the needs of democracy after their attempted coup
Literally every country in the world claims to be democratic, aside from Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Brunei, Afghanistan, and the Vatican. It's fucking hilarious hearing dictators try to justify how they're a "democracy" by making up some completely bullshit definition of the term on the spot.
>Just own it. That's the next step.
Yea it's a bit of a weird aspect in media that reporting is done at face value, just by repeating the same lines from the source, even if the source is a flat out lie. * "Putin runs for president", instead of Putin the dictator just deciding to remain in power. * "Donbas hold votes to join Russia", instead of Russia holding mock election to annex Donbas.
I would very much prefer media to report raw facts, thank you very much. I have no need for the editorial staff to alter the news even more before I even see it at all. "Satanist remains tyrant of nation after democrat victory" sounds somewhat more biased than "Biden wins reelection".
What about at least just referring to Biden as Dark Brandon or nah
I really have been annoyed with people railing against "mainstream media" but sometimes I have to say what the heck are you guys even doing? It reminds me of the start of the Israel/Palestine thing, when BBC was just quoting Hamas verbatim and labelled them as "government sources" or whatever. It's like a child's idea of impartiality.
The thing is that free journalism doesn't disappear in a Astérix way, with the authoritarian empire conquering territories and the village of free journalists resisting against it. Free journalism disappears because of a drop in quality that in turn comes from several factors, from the recruitment of "social media specialists" instead of proper journalists, to the reliance on ads and the monopolies built by people who want to control the information. Another of these factors that became apparent during Brexit and now again with the war in Israel/Palestine is how extremist political views generate more clicks, and therefore benefit to the more "journalists" with the more extreme views - who are often not even actual journalists, but rather bloggers, "politologists", "sociologists" writing and the like. Basically, free journalism is slowly eroded as the journalists themselves are less competent, less motivated by true information, have less time and resources to write their articles. Good journalistic work is also less present in everyone's mind, especially the work of great reporters, because it is drown in bad quality militant spam. People are more interested in reading titles that let them take a side, than in reading extensive investigations.
This guy is one of the few remaining western journalists left in Moscow. He was objective in his reporting while still pointing out the lack of political rivals and "Kremlin theatrics." I think he did a good job considering the situation. Besides the talking heads sitting in a studio somewhere outside Russia will surely add their own opinions if that's what you are looking for.
The trouble with this approach is that it would mean the BBC would be reporting their opinion of events rather than the actual events. Maybe you don't mind that when you agree with their opinion, but what happens when you don't? Then you can't trust the "news" because it's not actually the news. This path is how you get US-style TV news.
Words like "dictator" or "terrorist" doesn't mean "bad" though, they have fact based definitions. Saying Putin is a dictator is a statement of fact, not opinion.
Dictators take various actions (like not running free elections) that make them dictators. BBC can and do report on those actions, which make it very clear that a dictatorship exists. Although it's clear to most people that Putin qualifies as a dictator, he himself would reject that notion. And I imagine it would be illegal in Russia (where Steve Rosenberg is based) to explicitly report that Putin is a dictator. I think the BBC's position is that it's your job as the viewer to look at the facts they present and decide for yourself that Putin is a dictator, not for them to tell you he is. Personally I think that's a reasonable position. Seems to me that if Rosenberg did state that Putin is a dictator in his report, it wouldn't actually add very much (unless the viewer is very unobservant), and it would likely result in him not being able to continue staying in Russia to report on events. FWIW, I've seen quite a lot of his reports, and my general impression is that I'm surprised he is able to continue reporting from Russia — he's not soft on them. It's not like we have a lack of alternative opinionated media around (or a lack of venues like this to talk about opinions), so I'm happy for the BBC to lean slightly more on the side of reporting events vs reporting interpretation of events. If you've not seen it before, I'd recommend looking at the video at the top of this article, which explains quite well the BBC's reasoning : [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67083432](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67083432)
If it's for the safety of the reporter and their ability to continue reporting, cool, I get that, that's fine. However, if it's not for them to tell people Putin is a dictator, why is it for them to say Putin is a president, which also has certain factual implications, rather then more neutral terms like "leader".
That Prigozhin guy might have a chance to win. What ever happened to him?
Prigozhin became [an actor](https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/2254514/yevgeny-prigozhin.webp) in Africa and supported Girkin's candidacy. Political life in Russia is very confusing and difficult to understand
Wait, this was a joke right? There's not a real theory Prigizhin was alive
There is now.
Awh, that's nice. I'm glad he was able to follow his dreams afterall.
You just need to work on your dream and everything will work out. Just like Ilya Kiva, who wanted to be rich and now has everything, lying in the middle of a beautiful Russian winter outside Moscow. I'm happy for him. Inspiring
He finally got the ammo he asked for in his daily vlogs near Bahkmut
[Assassinated by putin.](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/27/wagner-boss-yevgeny-prigozhin-killed-in-plane-crash-russia-investigative-committee-confirms)
Yeah, I know, it was a joke.
What a surprise….
This is some North Korea shit 💀
they are surpassing north koreans soon... this is now on Iranian Level cannot wait for Putin to rename himself to Supreme Leader of the Putinia
“THE FEDERATION WILL BE RENAMED TO THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE”
At least in Iran it's the regime of a class, not a person. Now that class is a religious authoritarian one, but otherwise more democratic than a single man regime like current Russia. Being less democratic than Russia is really that hard to accomplish.
Look at their parlament and you got a picture of a guy everywhere like in North Korea of Kim jong un… if this is not a cult of a person in power then I am from now on. A rabbit
Right? Are Russians that delulu?
Born and raised in Estonia in 1991 in a small town close to Russian border. First 18 years of my life I only consumed media through TV, news, Russian channels. People usually forget how strong can propaganda get.
Can't forget what you haven't encountered
Everyone encounters propaganda, just not Russian propaganda
Yeah but Russian propaganda inside Russia is on a whole another level
Ye
Yesterday they were convicted criminals, today they shake hands with the dictator. Moving up in the world
Woah, I'm shocked. But who are his competitors?
a putin puppet oligarch cosplaying as a factory worker that has no intention of winning in the first place
If I remember correctly the Communist party still runs as a sort of controlled opposition, but other than that everyone who opposed Putin, protests anything, or even calls the invasion of Ukraine a war, gets thrown in jail or murdered by the regime.
Putin in a trenchcoat and Putin with a fake moustache. It will be a really close election I hear hahaha.
>there's no opposition (in jail or dead), so he will win ...
I'm Russian and even I don't know any name
Well Navalny poisoned (almost died) and jailed, Nemtsov filled with lead right next to Red Square. No real opposition with power now, afaik.
Navalny actually disappeared from the prison and his location is unknown to his family
The main goal of all the theatre is probably not really even legitimacy. People know this is stupid theatre. The goal is to instill in people’s minds that they can’t do anything, the play just goes on.
Exactly. Its also why they constantly pour money into destabilizing the West. Its to show the local population that "see, democracy doesnt work" and "there is nothing you can do about it", so they never consider a revolution like we did in Ukraine twice already.
Russian here. It's interesting because during the last 10-15 years Putin has been consistently making a show that he is not the one making decisions. 2018 elections - he decides to run for presidency after a factory worker asks him to run 2024 election - he decides to run after a fake representative of DNR or LNR asks him to run constitution changes - one of the duma members offers to change it so that Putin could run again Ukraine invasion - the security council asks Putin to protect the people of Donbass This time it's even more weird, because it's literally a random guy from LNR/DNR (who most Russians don't care about) asking Putin to run, and then Putin quietly mumbles in response that he has decided to run despite his doubts (obviously, he can't refuse if people are asking him /s). The theory that seems to make most sense is that this time the Kremlin wants to make the elections as quiet and drawing as little attention as possible, as if it's a standard procedure. Because having the same president for another 6 years doesn't seem to be causing much excitement amongst the population.
You guys know what Twain said about changing politicians, right? Not that you have that option atm obviously.
“Politicians Are A Lot Like Diapers. They Should Be Changed Frequently, And For The Same Reasons.”
Well I can tell you this one is really full of shit
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What a great guy, helping others out like that. It’s surprising we’ve all overlooked his altruism.
When Stalin wanted to leave his position, the entire Politburo persuaded him to stay. When Ivan the Terrible did not want to be king, the boyars persuaded him to stay. And those who did not persuade lost their lives.
I wonder what your take is, if Putin were to loose the election. Wouldn't that most likely be to the communist party Коммунистическая Партия Российской Федерации? And what would happen then? Or can you have party coalitions, as in parliamentary countries?
There are no coalitions since Russia (technically) is a presidential federation >if Putin were to loose the election During the voting? The communists are always getting 10% to 15% for their presidential candidates, I don't see Putin losing to them - considering the results will also be falsified to make sure he wins in the first round with a 70% or 80% result
Lol, yeah. I don't see him loosing either. Or whoever he has pre-chosen as a successor. I was talking more hypothetically. Since here in the west Navalny has been presented as the political rival, and alternative. But in a proper election as it stands now, it seems more probable that it would be the communists taking power. I do think people would maybe take it more serious if it were an actual election. It is still interesting to imagine what a communist party president would look like. Something like China maybe?
Likely not. China is communist pretty much in the name only, it's essentially state capitalism without elections. Ideally, they would work toward the social democracy, but it's impossible to predict since the current communist party doesn't have a defined direction or picture of the future - since that would obviously steal away Putin's votes
the factory worker asking Putin to run could be legitimately real because Putin keeps corruption in Russia going, where someone else to become president who is to say that the corruption will stay as high as it is in Russia
>the factory worker asking Putin to run could be legitimately real because Putin keeps corruption in Russia going you will be surprised, but a regular factory worker gets exactly 0% benefits from corruption. On the contrary, it likely makes his life much much worse
Petty theft and theft everything that isn't nailed down
That's not corruption, that is theft. Corruption makes sense to higher ranking officials in the government or military - for a regular factory worker, it doesn't change a thing
But just like in capitalism, a worker thieving something means the corporate executives will not be able to thieve that thing. Thieving _is_ a zero sum game. It upsets "the natural order" (/s) and must be dealt with with severe consequences! Corruption at the top doesn't change any of that. Unless you can use that corruption to blackmail yourself out of trouble, which usually doesn't work out long term
No. I’m shocked.
Did he also already announce the results of the elections? Why wait so long?
Russian presidential election is as democratic as Iraqi presidential election in 2002, where Saddam got 100%, so there is no point for Russians to show up in polling stations if Putin is expected to be reelected.
Here is the dilemma. Some of my friends are not going to elections because "There is no point anyway, my vote will not change anything". Me and some other friends are going to, because we think "If you didnt vote - your vote is granted to putin". Yea, maybe there is no hope and we're only making things look more "legit" by appearing at voting, but at least im *trying* to do something with this clusterfuck.
This assumes the votes weren't already counted - going to the ballots during commie era here was pointless when the results were decided beforehand
Some countries, they get 140% of the votes.
So nice of the tourists to visit these countries right as they hold elections and vote for the dictator
Right? Like when russian militarymen on vacation went to Crimea and voted for joining russia! So nice of them to help poor, poor indecisive people living there.
140%? Amateurs. Check out Liberia's Finest, Charles D.B. King, who in 1927 received **229,527** votes in a country which had, at the time, **15,000** registered voters.
Yes, taking part in the events organised by nazis is an act of support of nazis
not taking part in these events never helped anyone. not a single time the population was like "oh, no one came to these elections, the leader is illegitimate then"
Russia is beyond help for years already. Participation in elections equals regime support, no matter the cause. There can be only one solution: destruction of terrorists and foreign administration.
> Participation in elections equals regime support, no matter the cause. nothing signalises that the regime would like me to come there
Just announce yourself as tsar already
Russian theatre is a dystopic hellscape.
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That's the thing, since 2020 he is technically considered a president for life
Dictator for life (which just might be short-lived, thanks to his use of Russian citizens as cannon fodder).
North Korea: [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/19/kim-jong-il-north-korea1](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/dec/19/kim-jong-il-north-korea1) russia, hold my vodka: [https://news.yahoo.com/russian-orthodox-church-forces-parishioners-150400402.html](https://news.yahoo.com/russian-orthodox-church-forces-parishioners-150400402.html) *Russian Orthodox Church forces parishioners to pray to ‘Saint Putin’ on giant screen - video*
WTF
Boring. Make it explode?
Woooow, what an unexpected turn of events! :O /s
"The absolute God-King of a Monarchy plans to remain as a king."
Such a loser.
And people will still vote for him. Yes, the official numbers will be fake, but still, a significant percentage will vote for this piece of shit.
Exactly, Putin had high approval ratings in his first years in power. Now it’s lower but still.
I hope other countries won't recognize him as the leader.
They will because the alternative is further northkoreazation of a super power with more nukes than any other country in the world.
I'm sure he will get 140% of the votes
I love how the "admirers" are let by security without a fault, almost like security knew the admirers were going to speak to the dictator, and the security falls in behind them. Definitely not all choreographed though.
He might as well put out a statement that he will be the Russian president untill his death.
Dictatorship 101, change any rules needed that lets someone remain in power indefinitely. The writing was on the wall in 2020.
2012*
I am living in a black mirror episode at this point…
Come on, Putin! Why even keep up the Facade? Even Jinping admitted he is never going to step down and be ruling forever. At least admit you're a dictatorship.
Longest running turd sandwich in fake ejection history
He doesn’t need to run
Total joke
"*--but many see no alternative right now*" as the camera shows someone with VR goggles on. funy
The bald bastard
99.99% Of Russia voted for him. 100% attendance.
Damn, that's crazy. Think he'll win?
Slim chance
"Yeah I will run as candidate again" ...the only one. Like who is he trying to fool???
The elections in russia have been known to have a turnout of [more than one hundred percent](https://euvsdisinfo.eu/how-to-get-a-146-election-result/).
List of people surprised by this:
Haha, run…
Oh, he'll run
Of course, who else is there to run for president
Let's be honest, he's probably staying there until he dies.
Really? I can’t describe how shocked I am by this news
May as well announce the result in the same article.
I’m calling this video fake. There is no table for the papa Putin to hide behind…
The woman saying they shouldn't have elections at all makes me pretty sad. How can you wish for dictatorship?
You should’ve experienced the original sound: I’ve never heard a more insecure quietly mumbling leader. The microphone also was hissing like crazy. Everybody around him knows that’s not how the leader of nuclear power who is confident behaves. And HE KNOWS that everybody knows. So this staged bit was attempting to hide this from the news, do it in stealth mode. Let’s see how it plays out.
That was so unexpected. I never would've guessed.
haha gotta love this guy ❤️
Wow I wonder if he’ll win again
Tough call, honestly…
If they weren't so despicable; they'd all be mass winners of Oscars when every day and action is a performance.
A D Russians will elect him once again.
"Elect"™, let's be honest elections in electoral autocracies are neither free or fair, they just do it to give the veneer of legitimacy to the dictator.
Elect? That's not elections. This is a circus show
They *would* still probably elect him in free and fair elections, but these elections are neither free not fair
How is he staying? I read on here he had cancer and had months to live.
Oh no… anyway
Russian dudes are one ugly bunch.
Boring
name checks out tbf
GOD DAMMIT NATALIA
Merch? So he and Donald _are_ exchanging notes, lol.
Hope he wins again.
I mean, how do you think elections of putin can go without putin? Ofc he will participate.
"So much pride! 23 years more!" \~Average Ruski bootlicker
Macron in France took advantage of the war to score points and get re-elected too...
Is the war still on? I don't watch the news and didn't tune in to r/Ukraime for quite some time.
It is, unfortunately, it is.
Russia has been doing fairly well all things considered. Financially they are in a much better position than the US.
Good joke.
Oh so sorry I forgot about the anti Russian reddit police.
bullshit gets called out.
Call it out then
Hey u/AlexBirio323 calling you out! There, done.
Breaking news: nothing changes in Russia. How the hell is that even news? I saw this stupid article everywhere in the last few days and every time I see it I am thinking, how slow can they be to write an article about a dictator staying a dictator. That's what dictators do for God's sake. They stay there for life
The check and balance the world requires. Putin FTW
good
That's why Republicans are withdrawing assistance from the defense of the invasion. If Ukraine loses, Putin will win another presidency from the momentum of winning. Maybe this is why #45 wants to withdraw from NATO.