The 2018 Russian Presidential Election will take place on March 18, 2018. So, President Vladimir Putin has just three months to motivate his countrymen to vote in his favour. Soon after a final decision was made in this regard by the Upper House of Russian Parliament or the Federation Council, President Putin (reportedly) uttered cautiously that he would seek re-election as an independent candidate in order to ensure the support of other political parties who might back his views.
In a somewhat plaintive manner, the Russian strongman also raised an ‘important’ question: why is there no opposition candidate? Even, he tried to explain the current political scenario in his country, stating that it wasn’t possible for him as a president to ‘make’ opposition leaders. “It’s not my job to raise competitors……That’s the main problem of those who want to be a competitive opposition…..they need to present real issues that people will believe in,” he stressed. At the same time, Putin was heard to mention that an election hardly has much meaning, if there is no opposition.

Vladimir Putin

For the last few months, the president has been striving hard to highlight the importance of ‘competition’ in politics. Addressing a press conference in Moscow last week, the incumbent president said that competition was a good thing not only for the economy, but also for politics. “I would do everything I could to introduce more of it,” he told the media.
Meanwhile, Putin’s views have ‘surprised’ (read shocked) a section of political analysts who believe that the president, himself, is responsible for the destruction of competitive atmosphere in Russian politics. According to a recent opinion poll (conducted by the Russian government), the strongman is enjoying support of 61% people, while opposition leaders have the backing of just 8%. It’s surprising that such a person is talking about democracy, claimed analysts.
In fact, Putin is a pretender of a historic speciality among world leaders. Despite giving lecture on ‘morality’, this extreme authoritarian ruler has sent his rivals and opposition leaders to jail or killed them in an attempt to end their political careers, thus, murdering the democracy in Russia. Almost all the leaders are accused of duplicity in their dealing with people, but he has done this with outstanding efficiency.

Garry Kasparov

Recently, former world chess champion and political activist Garry Kasparov said: “There isn’t any democratic politics in Russia, only that approved by the Putin regime. The balance of power is between various camps of Putin’s allies, pushing and pulling for influence and cash, usually behind the scenes.” He further said: “You can’t speak of democracy or sully the word ‘election’ by talking about Russia. It’s a joke, a show to distract people, nothing more. Russia is a dictatorship and anyone who posed any sort of real challenge to Putin’s grip on power would be dead, in jail or exiled.”
Kasparov further said that the Russia’s domestic politics had a close relation with the global politics. Unfortunately, foreigners can’t understand this well. According to Kasparov, the recent rise of ultra-rightists in different parts of Europe and in the US, too, has influenced the Russian politics.
The Russian media are heavily dependent on funds provided by the government. So, they are engaged in showing the victory of right-wing parties in other countries as per Kremlin’s instruction. Naturally, the media are trying to tell the people that Putin is a visionary and powerful leader, and it’s not possible for a leader – like Mikheil Saakashvili or Kasparov – to face Ukrainian rebels.
Autocratic rulers can learn from Putin how to use the state media and how to keep the overall public support for opposition leaders out of double-digit percentage.

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/boundlessoceanofpolitics/

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Google Plus:
https://plus.google.com/+KoushikDasboundless

Boundless Ocean of Politics on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/kousdas?s=09

Contact us: kousdas@gmail.com

Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das