This Sunday, Vladimir Putin will be re-elected in the first round as President of the Russian Federation for another six years. No need to maintain false suspense. The only question that remains lies in the percentage of votes that the Kremlin will have chosen to grant to its autocrat. 71.9% in 2004, 64.3% in 2012, 77.5% in 2018; the result should be around or perhaps even exceed 80% this year.
At the polls, the Russians will in any case officially have the choice between four candidates. No critical voice of power, obviously, and in particular regarding the invasion of Ukraine or the ever more oppressive totalitarian drift in the country. Candidates who were too disturbing were thus ousted from the ballot, with the last hope embodied until the end of February by Boris Nadejdine, little by little becoming an opposition figure who was too threatening and could tarnish the great victory desired by the Kremlin.
Apart from the future winner, Vladimir Putin, three courtiers of power were thus authorized to present themselves: Leonid Sloutski, Nikolaï Kharitonov and Vladislav Davankov. Despite their displayed partisan labels (nationalist, communist, liberal), the latter stand out above all for knowing who will best flatter the Kremlin autocrat. Overview of the puppet candidates in the ballot which opened this Friday.
Leonid Slutsky, the nationalist and servant of the Kremlin
He was the first candidate officially authorized to run against Vladimir Putin. “Face” is perhaps not the right word, as Leonid Sloutski is an enthusiastic and fervent supporter of the Russian autocrat. As soon as his candidacy was made official, Sloutsky, president of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, announced his colors. “I am not going to call for a vote against Putin. Voting for Slutsky and voting for the LDPR is absolutely not voting against Putin,” he told the Russian press. Among the anthology of his declarations, the 56-year-old man notably assured that he will not take “no vote away from the President of Russia”, insisted on “the consolidation of society around Vladimir Putin who is absolutely without precedent”, and confided “dreaming of a victory of our military operation [en Ukraine]not a victory against Putin.
A member of the Duma since 1999 – where he is also the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee – Slutsky is a devoted supporter of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and of almost everything that Vladimir Putin does. He was notably among the Russian personalities sanctioned by the United States and the European Union after the invasion of Crimea in 2014. And to complete his CV, Léonid Sloutski is also accused of sexual harassment by several female Russian journalists. Accusations which had not given rise to any investigation on the part of the Russian authorities, and which they for their part have always denied.
This unfailing loyalty to those in power has earned him the good graces of the Kremlin, which would also push to make him the runner-up in this election. In any case, this is what the independent Russian newspaper said Meduza in early January, citing several sources at the heart of Russian power. To achieve this goal, not necessarily by falsification of votes, but media coverage which was intended to be very favorable to Slutski. “Find a good story to launch his campaign, put him forward on television, play with his image on the official social networks of power,” said a source from the independent media.
But this mission could prove to be very complex due to… the candidate’s “lack of charisma”, in the words of several officials cited by Meduza. Helping Slutski to reach second place will be “difficult” and even “close to impossible”, even said a source close to the Russian presidency, adding that he was “not at all eloquent”. This last point is, however, much more often a quality than a fault in the eyes of the Kremlin, in order to always further promote its supreme leader.
Nikolai Kharitonov, the old communist veteran
Ordinarily, second place should almost have gone to him automatically. Aged 75 and a trained agronomist, Nikolai Kharitonov is the candidate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. A political side represented in every election since the fall of the USSR, and which has systematically come in second place in the Russian presidential election since 1991. Kharitonov himself had already been a candidate 20 years ago, in 2004, where he received 13.8% of the vote.
Contrary to what his political label might suggest, the president of the Communist Party is far from being in opposition to Vladimir Putin. Ranked colonel of the FSB in the 2000s, he too is an unwavering supporter of the invasion of Ukraine, where one of his nephews even died last July. Nikolai Kharitonov is careful not to criticize too directly the policy implemented by the Kremlin. He notably focused his campaign on defending a policy supporting an increase in the birth rate and greater nationalization of the means of production, two themes widely defended by the power in place. In the Duma, although officially sitting in opposition, the Communist Party thus remains a faithful supporter of Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia.
An exchange with Nikolai Kharitonov, reported by the BBC, perfectly transcribes the candidate’s reluctance to lead his own campaign. “Why do you think you would be a better president than Putin?” asked journalist Steve Rosenberg. “It’s not for me to say. It wouldn’t be right,” Kharitonov responds. “But do you think your program is better than Putin’s?” continues the reporter. “It’s up to the voters to decide,” retorts the communist candidate.
“But what do you think?”, the British journalist always insists. “What I think doesn’t matter. It’s up to the voters to decide,” Kharitonov concluded, adding that Vladimir Putin “is trying to consolidate the nation with a view to victory in all areas. And that’s Is this what’s going to happen?”
Vladislav Davankov, true or false hope of the anti-war?
The last candidate in the running, Vladislav Davankov, is the youngest candidate in this election. At 40, the man who was initially a businessman became a deputy in the Duma in 2021, for the “New People” party. On economic issues, he claims to have a liberal vision, pleading for more freedoms for businesses, a reduction in administrative procedures, or even an acceleration of the modernization of the country. He also calls for a rollback of the ban on the social network Instagram in the country, since 2022. He also ran for mayor of Moscow in 2023, where he obtained 5.3% of the vote.
But it is on the subject of the war in Ukraine that Vladislav Davankov differs very slightly from his competitors. Initially, his political party “New People” was the only one not to have supported the recognition of the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk at the start of the invasion of Ukraine, before finally retracting and falling into line . The candidate also multiplies more ambiguous interventions on this subject, successively explaining that he wants to be “for peace and negotiations in Ukraine” but “starting from our conditions”, calling for normalizing relations with the West, or even pleading in his program for the end of the “persecution of dissidents and ideological censorship”.
Davankov was also the only candidate to officially support the candidacy of Boris Nadezhdin – who had openly opposed the invasion of Ukraine and who was ultimately prevented from running by the Kremlin -, pleading in favor of political pluralism, and even granting him his signature so that he could stand for the vote.
Sincere opponent of Vladimir Putin or simple puppet of the Kremlin? Opinions are divided even within the Russian opposition in exile. Thus, for Maxim Katz, a very popular dissident on social networks, Davankov would be the most consistent candidate to adopt the principle of “anyone except Putin”, a recurring strategy of the (real) Russian opposition aimed at supporting the candidate best placed in all elections against the party of the master of the Kremlin.
A point of view strongly opposed by Leonid Volkov, an influential member of the Navalny clan. “He encouraged the annexation of Crimea, he voted for the annexation of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. He is one of the war criminals, neither better nor worse than Putin, Slutsky or Kharitonov.” Also adding that “if we encourage everyone to vote for him, he won’t win two percent, but six percent. And the administration will proudly say, ‘Here are all your anti-war votes.’
Davankov is also under fire for playing a significant role in legislation to ban gender transition in Russia, a sign of Russia’s ever-increasing repression of the LGBT community. His “New People” political party is also regularly accused of being an empty shell fueled by the Kremlin to try to weaken and divide support for the Navalny camp. Suffice it to say that even if some polls announced him in second position in the election in recent days, we will be far from a major victory for the opposition to Vladimir Putin.