Putin stung at the polls

Russian voters delivered a firm rebuke to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in elections this week by stripping his United Russia party of 77 seats in the State Duma. Opposition parties said the losses, which reduced the governing party’s share of parliamentary seats from 70 percent to 53 percent, would have been steeper if not for widespread vote rigging that benefited United Russia. Thousands of people, galvanized by amateur online videos showing apparent ballot-box stuffing and illegal campaigning, took to the streets in Moscow in protest. Russian authorities responded by deploying thousands of security forces in Moscow and other cities and arresting hundreds of protesters. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Russians deserve a “full investigation of electoral fraud and manipulation,” and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called for new elections.

“Even a rigged election can send a message,” said The Washington Post in an editorial. Russian voters are tired of the “criminality that has infected every corner of the Russian government.” If the voting had been free and fair, “there’s no telling how far” the ruling party might have fallen. There is still little doubt that Putin will win the Russian presidency in March. But this backlash is proof that his decision to “retrench rather than reform his regime” has provoked “a Russian awakening.”

Putin boasts of bringing stability to Russia, but many Russians see only stagnation, said Stefan Wagstyl in the Financial Times. For years, Putin has bought popular affection by doling out government jobs and oil revenues with one hand, while curtailing rights and enriching his corrupt friends with the other. Russians are “no longer satisfied” with the trade-off, and Putin himself has become a prime target of their anger.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

One way or another, Putin will cling to power, said Daniel Treisman in CNN.com. He may try to mollify the opposition with a few liberal reforms, but the public was long ago inoculated “against empty Kremlin promises.” He could attempt to “woo the masses” with new spending, but the slowing economy and swelling state budget make that a risky strategy. He could even “trade his soft authoritarianism for a tougher, more effective model.” But whatever Putin does, Russia’s “turbulence is just beginning.”