Putin wins in a sham landslide

Russia’s president is now in charge until 2024. What does this mean for the world? Emily Hohler reports.

888-Putin-634

Vladimir Putin: there was only ever going to be one winner
(Image credit: Copyright (c) 2018 Shutterstock. No use without permission.)

"Vladimir Putin, Russia's longest-serving ruler since Joseph Stalin, surprised no one with his landslide re-election on Sunday," says Alina Polyakova in The Atlantic. But although his victory was a "foregone conclusion" (he had no serious challengers and took 76% of the vote), the Kremlin still fretted about appearances, conducting an "elaborate" campaign to produce the high turnout that would "ensure Putin's mandate". It worked. Thanks to Putin's "long-running disinformation campaign" to legitimise the "brazenly illegitimate election", threats of "annihilation by the West" if people didn't vote and widespread offers of freebies, turnout exceeded 67% at least according to TASS, the Russian news agency. Putin's grip on power now extends to 2024.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.