Russian President Vladimir Putin can choose not to hold presidential elections next year because he will “obviously” win re-election, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said late Sunday.
That he will win them is indeed obvious. Since there have not been fair elections in Russia for quite some time, one cannot expect these to be fair.
Also, any relevant opposition tends to end up poisoned or jailed or both.
Hey now, windows and balconies were doing the heavy lifting (dropping?) earlier this year. Must have been a shortage in poison due to the embargos.
Why spend money on toxins when buildings already have the necessary tools
Not having elections would make it more transparent to what is going on though. It should not be in Putin’s favour to just stop having them. Maybe he can’t afford the bill of having one this time.
What transparency do you want after all those jailings and murders?
There is also the added cost of rigging all those machines and stuffing the ballot boxes.
There it is folks.
I’m surprised he waited so long, honestly. all this tip-toeing around rigged elections and shoving his political opponents out of windows into cups of polonium tea is lot of work for a guy who has to shop for gigantic conference tables all day and poop into a collection bag for his secret service guys to catalogue for whatever reason. when you combine all of that with his busy schedule of genociding Ukranians, well… obviously, one of those activities will to have to go. an evil autarch has only so much time in the day!
I think at this moment, there could be protests even with a rigged election. Take away the election entirely and maybe it’s a lower chance of protests. No opposition to galvanize around, etc.
Kind of hard to be sarcastic when thinking about that
Cataloguing bags of shit?
Sauce?
That’s when they stop pretending.
republicans creaming their pants rn.
They’re taking notes!
Fucking lmaooo
They forgot to step one though. Have someone in your ranks with more brains than a fruit fly.
It would be a “technical violation” of constitution, which apparently is not a crime.
\s
Special election operation
I just need you to um… find me um… 11,780 votes. C’mon bro, it’s just a tiny bit of treason!
These people loves rules and laws, except of course if it applies to them.
I think I understood that this was a reference to that other, very free country (the freeestest of all), where that previous president did…things.
He has achieved conservatism’s natural final form of “leadership”.
I think at this point he knows that he can do fuck all without any Russian uprising.
IMO we’re more likely to see Russia break into a pile of separate republics than a big unified uprising. Maybe that pile of republics gets unified by a new dictator or Putin, maybe not. As it is, the core Russian ethnic group is shrinking while several of the other ethnicities are growing within their respective regions.
Eventually the Russians won’t have enough young men to conscript and continue maintaining control of their already massive territory, which will lead to existing regional governments declaring independence while Russia proper will be able to do fuck all about it unless they wanna start nuking their neighbors.
Russia break into a pile of separate republic is practically impossible, as it will cause colossal pain for literally all states. It is much easier to negotiate with one dictator with a nuclear button than with twenty.
Look, I’m not arguing what I think makes sense for people to do, I’m thinking about how people in large groups tend to act, regardless of whether it’s logical. Competing for power is inevitable whenever a centralized system can’t maintain outright dominance.
It’s already started: that’s what Progozhin’s march was all about.
In Russia, leadership is ALL about the appearance of strength, and they have proven that throughout history with not only the leaders they have kept, but the leaders they have killed.
Putin is supposed to be a man’s man, the epitome of strength in leadership, unquestionable, unassailable, all-knowing and all-wise. This is his attraction to Russians, and how he came into power through the apartment bombings.
With a strong, wise leader in a strong, unassailable country, Progozhin should never have made it past the border.
Instead, he made it to the outskirts of Moscow itself – with a continued challenge to keep marching if that’s how Putin wanted to play it.
And meanwhile, the miles and miles of roadsides along the march were packed like sardines with all the invisible Russians who did NOT give a shit and stayed home to demonstrate their support of the Putin regime.
(Compare this to the invasion of Ukraine, where even unarmed babushkas were confronting the occupiers, offering them sunflower seeds to keep in their pockets so that when they died on Ukrainian soil there would at least be something good to show for their presence.)
Prigozhin didn’t march on Moscow to capture Moscow. He didn’t want Moscow. What he wanted, and got, was to reveal Putin’s massive weakness to the world.
That day was the day Putin’s regime ended, because it was the day Putin’s own country stopped seeing him as a strongman, and that was always the source of his authority. It’s gone now. Done. He’s still a crazy motherfucker cornered like a rat with nukes, he’s still living in the palaces, but it’s all superficial. He was already sick, and that was dangerous enough, but this put even the appearance of strength in his leadership permanently to rest.
There is literally no future for Putin in Russia anymore, and he can’t flee either, which is why he can no longer hold presidential elections, or allow any activity that further pulls back the curtain on his political vulnerability. It’s literally only a matter of time before he is killed or dies, and how many people he can manage to rob, imprison, and kill between that day and now.
TL;DR: Whatever happens now will not undo what Prigozhin did to lil’ man Putin on the road to Moscow on June 25, 2023.
Yes yes. The evil Putin has usurped all power alone and is standing up to the entire government like a real Russian. And he probably shot Nemtsov personally.
In fact, there are many interested forces in the government. People for war, people against war, people who don’t care. Everything is like everywhere else.
Prigozhin went on his march because Putin tried to legally ban Wagner by transferring all financial flows to the army. Prigozhin received the money and quietly left. probably literally everyone knows this. how fashionable it is to believe in the image of a strong old man is a mystery to me.
then you don’t quite understand how the Russian economy works. The regions do not have their own economic system and their own army either. Both money and people pass through Moscow. how to find resources for the collapse in such conditions is unclear to me. If only you believe in the people in a single impulse organizing their own government. This is also very unlikely.
“Our presidential election is not really democracy […]"
Well, duh!
Russian President Vladimir Putin can choose not to hold presidential elections next year because he will “obviously” win re-election, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said late Sunday.
I agree, why even bother?
If the russian population is eating the bullshit thrown before them, why hold elections… Save yourself the hassle and stop pretend to be a democracy.
And yeah, I imagine the TRUMP-MAGA-GOP is cumming right in their pants without even touching when Putin actually just calls of the elections.
Putin is widely expected to declare his bid for a sixth overall presidential term.
Oh, his “bid”? Is he gonna roll those dice one more time? See if he breaks lucky?
A “bid” would entail something like “chance”. And that chance would not depend on the citizens, but on his cronies…
100% chance is still a chance
At least he should pretend to get the 101% of the votes
Too lazy
So, what happened with not serving more than 2 consecutive terms in Russia? Was it already removed?
yeah when he became president again 6 years ago.
Well you can always serve a term as prime minister, then be president again. Just make a small tweak of the office of Prime Minister to being the most powerful position, then when you are ready to be president again, change the most powerful position back to the office of presidency. No violation of consitution, just convienient changes on which office has the actual power.
By the way, this was corrected in the amendments to the constitution 6 years ago. Just when Putin went for a new term “because the constitution was changed, which means it’s like zeroing out the terms”. If you interesting.
guess he doesn’t want to be prime minister again
Well, in 2020 he did make it law that he was dictator for life. So, what’s the point of going through the motions anymore?
Don’t feel bad for the Russian people.
They deserve this shit for putting up with this year after year as they could clearly see him grabbing more and more power. If they revolted against him 10 or even 15 years ago when he had a fraction of the power that he does now, it never would have gotten so bad and this pointless war in Ukraine might have never happened.
“It’s the abusee’s fault for putting up with them”.
It is when you’re talking about a nation. Putin rules by consent of the governed, they can revoke it
That shithole is nothing but a Potemkin country.
He’s afraid Prigozhin will run.