Russian President Vladimir Putin has been elected for the fourth presidential term of 6 years in his biggest score ever over his rivals. He garnered 77% of the vote. With another 6 years, Putin has ample to pursue and amplify his nationalistic and assertive policies.
His margin of victory over the other seven candidates in Sunday’s election was massive. Putin’s popularity and acceptance in Russia is very high. His victory was never in doubt, in fact, all the opposition combined cannot defeat him.
The electoral commission said official turnout was 67 percent. With 99.8 percent of the vote counted, the Central Election Commission said Monday that communist Pavel Grudinin came in a distant second with 11.8 percent. The third was ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky with 5.6 percent. The only candidate to openly criticize Putin during the campaign, liberal TV star Ksenia Sobchak, won just 1.6 percent.
The only person that many believed will give Putin a good contest, Alexei Navalny was barred from the election. Is Putin going to be president for life in the same manner of China’s Prime Minister who has just been given the mandate to rule for life, having ruled Russia for the past 20 years? Time will tell. Congratulations, President Putin
