Dem
51
GOP
49
The Russians held a sham presidential election over the weekend, and Vladimir Putin "won" a fifth term as president. That means, barring death or overthrow, he'll be in office until 2030. He's also arranged for the rules on term limits to be changed, such that he can stage another sham election in that year, and then serve until 2036. At that point, he'd still only be a year older than Joe Biden is right now. In other words, Putin has been running Russia forever.
We do not presume to have any special expertise in Russian politics or culture, but Putin's win percentage strikes us as just about the worst win percentage possible. He took 87% of the vote, since there was no real opposition, and since Russian voters were strongly "encouraged" to get themselves to the polls to show their "support" for their Dear Leader. Nobody, within Russia or without, can look at that total and take it seriously. Particularly just a few weeks after Putin's biggest critic, Alexei Navalny, died in prison under hazy circumstances.
At the same time, despite all the factors acting in Putin's favor, there was still 13% of the vote that did not go for him. Clearly there is a resistance out there. We would say that if you're going to rig an election, you really should arrange to win at least 95% of the vote, the way Kim Jong-Un does. Otherwise, have a real election, knowing you'll still win based on incumbency and name recognition, so that you can claim an actual mandate, as opposed to a faux mandate.
In any event, when Putin does leave office, it likely will not be voluntary. And between his reported health issues, along with the fact that he's already faced at least one coup attempt, we wonder what the odds are that he actually makes it to 2030. Maybe 50/50? (Z)