“Democracy! In Russia, it’s a word that makes you laugh. You know the shortest funny story: Putin is a democrat…”. Reading these words from Svetlana Alexievitch from 2013 (1), we almost want to laugh at the tragico-buffoonery of the Russian ballot boxes: pathetic, this presidential election ended not only with a marshal’s score for the ex- colonel of the KGB (87% of the votes) but also by manipulations and repression never seen since his arrival in power in 1999.
In a quarter of a century, Russia has transformed itself from a fragile and recent democracy into a dictatorship, with the assurance for the master of the Kremlin of reigning longer than Stalin and undoubtedly than Catherine II, at the head of Russia for thirty and thirty-four years. From the little father of the people, he borrowed authoritarianism, the cult of personality, the manipulation of crowds and hatred of the West. To the “Great” Catherine, who expanded the empire by 500,000 square kilometers and annexed Crimea, her territorial ambitions.
Putin, Tsar of Russia, with legitimacy renewed by the vote of his compatriots. Above all, Ukraine’s aggressor has a free hand to continue his dirty deeds. Will the 140 million Russians one day put obstacles in his way? “The people? The people, what they are waiting for are simple things. Mountains of gingerbread. And a tsar!”, Svetlana Alexievich already guessed. Russia has obtained both: Western sanctions have so far barely dented household wallets and the Kremlin’s massive propaganda is strengthening the patriotic fiber (2). To the point that three-quarters of Russians support the war in Ukraine, according to the Levada Center. In a society paralyzed by fear, the Putinian system has not yet shown any signs of cracking. He barely gives a glimpse, on the occasion of this election, of an increased desire for control, a sign of real excitement, already perceptible during the attempted coup d’état by the boss of the Wagner militia, Evgueni Prigozhin, in June 2023.
In the medium term, Russian vulnerabilities risk increasing: declining demographics, flight of the country’s elite abroad, precarious macroeconomic stability, and the cost of severing ties with the rest of Europe. But Vladimir Putin promised, on the evening of his re-election, not to let himself be “intimidated”. Over the years, the ex-judoka has managed to decimate the opposition. He is “only” 71 years old, and he knows that the fear of the unknown paralyzes his people. “Russia has a thousand-year history and has always had the privilege of practicing an independent foreign policy. Today we do not intend to break this tradition either,” he announced at the Munich security conference. in… 2007. Already, Stalin’s heir felt like a tsar at heart…
(1) The End of the Red Man, by Svetlana Alexievitch (Actes Sud, 2013)
(2) “From Stalin to Putin: genesis and evolution of Russian imperial violence”, by Céline Marangé and Juliette Cadiot (Le Grand Continent, 2024)