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Vladimir Putin: Russia’s once and future president

The Week

The former KGB agent is elected to his third term as Russia’s president. But do Russians really respect him?

Was Putin fairly elected?

Not remotely, but that’s not to say anyone could have beaten him. Since he first took the helm in Russia, in 1999, Vladimir Putin has ruled with a modified form of Soviet-style authoritarianism that he calls “managed democracy.” The idea is that weakened state institutions, including the electoral system, yield to the designs of a strong leader. That entails some outright fraud; monitors found evidence of “carousel voting,” in which busloads of voters travel around casting ballots under different names, and in Chechnya, more pro-Putin votes were counted than there were registered voters. But managed democracy relies even more on subtler manipulations. Technical reasons are found to prevent opposition parties from registering. Massive state resources, including almost all TV and radio news, are brought to bear in favor of the Kremlin. Phony “opposition candidates” are put forward. Those tactics delivered Putin an official victory of almost 64 percent. That number was surely inflated, but Putin does inspire heartfelt devotion among many Russians.

Why do they admire him?

Putin represents stability, a welcome contrast to the chaos of the first decade after the Soviet Union dissolved, in 1991. Under Boris Yeltsin, a few tycoons, known as oligarchs, were allowed to plunder state resources in a period of wild privatization that plunged millions into poverty. Putin reversed that process, reasserting firm central control over Russian resources. During his reign, the Russian economy has grown by an average of 7 percent a year, poverty has been halved, and the average monthly salary of Russians has more than tripled. High global prices for Russia’s vast oil and natural gas resources played a big role in that success. But many Russians give Putin credit for the fact that they are much better off than ever before.