Vladimir Putin wins landslide in Russian presidential elections
Vladimir Putin was elected Russian President gaining 63.3 percent of the 65.3 percent voter turnout in the national elections held in the country on March 4 2012.
“Thank you to all those who voted for a great Russia,” Putin said in his victory speech to crowds gathered inside the Kremlin walls. “Today we won the test for political independence and we showed all those who want to provoke Russia, whose aim is to destroy Russia and usurp power, that the Russian nation will not let this happen. We will uphold the glory of Russia.”
Putin will hold office for the third time, having been Prime Minister of the Russian Federation for the last four years.
Putin previously held the Presidential seat between 2000 and 2008. In 2008 he assigned Dmitry Medvedev to run for President. Medvedev won receiving 70.2 percent of the vote.
The President elect headed government in order to comply with the Russian constitution which states that an individual may not hold the Presidential seat for more than two consecutive terms. Putin will hold office for the next six years due to a new law introduced in December 2008 by outgoing President Medvedev, extending the presidential term from four years. Many believe this was carried out in preparation for Putin’s re-election in 2012.
Protests began in Moscow on Sunday evening following the election. Some 20,000 people, according to the opposition count, gathered in Pushkin square with slogans “Russia without Putin!” claiming the election results were rigged and so the result cannot be considered fair.
The protests continued through Monday March 5 and were subsequently broken up by police.
More than 250 people were arrested in Moscow and over 300 in Petersburg, Radio Free Europe reported on Monday.
Alexei Navalny, a lead figure of the opposition since 2011, was among those arrested. In December 2011 Navalny served a 15 day sentence when he was arrested in demonstrations protesting against the result of the Russian parliamentary elections held on December 4 2011. The opposition claimed that the election was fraudulent and demanded a repeat election.
Protests have been taking place every two weeks since December, in Moscow and 68 other large cities. So far they have not been violent.
“Putin got such a high vote because he has no competition on the current political scene,” Aleksei Grazdankin of the political analysis center Levada commented. “Secondly the result is a reaction to the December 4 2011 parliamentary elections. His party United Russia only received 49.3 percent and the poor result mobilized people to vote more eagerly for Putin. Apart from this the more conservative electorate got scared of the oppositions’ demonstrations and a potential Orange Revolution.”
Putin’s election campaign included promises of change in social policy, with the introduction of a tax on luxury, reforms to ensure a more even distribution of wealth, support for small and medium enterprises and the replacement of corrupt cadres. The new President is set to take office on May 7 2012.
Photo by Misha Japaridze-Pool. Courtesy of Polish news wire PAP
