Putin's sham election
Protest votes show Russian dissent still simmers

Ahead of Russia's farce of an election, state television aired a menacing get-out-the-vote commercial. A pregnant young woman stands in her modest kitchen, chopping vegetables and asking her husband about his day — did he remember to get groceries? Yes. Did he remember to vote? No, he shrugs, saying, "What difference does it make?" The ad suddenly shifts into horror-film mode, the lights flickering, the music ominous. The wife advances slowly toward him, brandishing her kitchen knife. She lists off all the wonderful things the Kremlin has promised for the future that they will lose if he doesn't vote — child payments, subsidized loans — and chases him out of the apartment. Off he runs to the polls, just in time. It's an entertaining spot, funny in the way of Russian black humor, but there's a subliminal message in it, too. Vote, or face violence.
Why would Vladimir Putin bother trying to motivate voters? The outcome here was a foregone conclusion, since the candidates ostensibly running against him were Kremlin-picked non-entities who didn't even campaign against him. But holding an election allows him to pretend that Russia is a democracy, that his people support him, that his rule is legitimate. This year, with the war in Ukraine dragging on and killing tens of thousands of Russian soldiers each month, the regime resorted to new measures to compel turnout, extending the balloting for three days and introducing electronic voting. Public-sector employees were ordered to bring others with them to the polls. Coerced into voting, Russia's beleaguered opposition managed to turn the act into a protest: They showed up, but all at the same time on the final day, a silent display of defiance. While such a protest does nothing to weaken Putin's repressive hold on Russia, it shows that there is a flicker of dissent that Putin hasn't been able to snuff out.
This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

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.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Susan Caskie is The Week's international editor and was a member of the team that launched The Week's U.S. print edition. She has worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Transitions magazine, and UN Wire, and reads a bunch of languages.
-
How China uses 'dark fleets' to circumvent trade sanctions
The Explainer The fleets are used to smuggle goods like oil and fish
-
Cracks appear in MAGA's pro-Israel front
IN THE SPOTLIGHT As the world watches a humanitarian crisis unfold across Gaza, some of Israel's most staunchly conservative defenders have begun speaking out against its actions in the occupied territories
-
5 cultural trails to traverse by car
The Week Recommends Leave the hiking shoes at home
-
Democrats: The 2028 race has begun
Feature Democratic primaries have already kicked off in South Carolina
-
The Pentagon's missing missiles
Feature The U.S. military is low on weapons. Can it restock before a major conflict breaks out?
-
Rescissions: Trump's push to control federal spending
Feature The GOP passed a bill to reduce funding for PBS, NPR and other public media stations
-
Emil Bove: The start of a MAGA judiciary?
Feature President Trump's former personal attorney is on the verge of being confirmed by Senate Republicans
-
ICE builds detention camps and ramps up arrests
Feature The Trump administration's deportation efforts continue
-
Deportations: The growing backlash
Feature New poll numbers show declining support for Trump's deportation crackdown
-
Citizenship: Trump order blocked again
Feature After the Supreme Court restricted nationwide injunctions, a federal judge turned to a class action suit to block Trump's order to end birthright citizenship
-
Loyalty tests: The purge at the FBI
Feature Kash Patel is conducting polygraph tests on FBI agents to weed out anyone speaking badly about him