Putin Overwhelmingly Triumphant on Sunday
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
Americans have fantasy democracy. In Russia, it’s the real thing. Putin’s reelection was never in doubt.
Results showed Russians want no one else leading them. Putin won by a greater than expected near-77% majority - over 55 million voters choosing him.
Turnout was 67.4% - a strong showing, higher than expected, boosted by false UK-led Western accusations of poisoning former spy/double agent Sergey Skripal.
Asked about it by reporters after polls closed, Putin explained if anyone was exposed to military-grade nerve agent, they “would have died on the spot,” adding:
“Russia does not possess such agents. We have destroyed all our chemical arsenals under control of international observers.”
Blaming Russia for the Skripal incident is “utter nonsense,” he stressed. No one “in Russia would allow such stunt ahead of presidential elections and the World Cup. It’s unthinkable.”
Skripal and his daughter reportedly are seriously ill, no further information about them provided, nothing about their whereabouts, no idea if the incident actually occurred - if so, no evidence supporting the official narrative.
It’s fake - a UK false flag, Washington almost certainly complicit, a failed attempt to smear Putin ahead of Sunday’s election, aiming to lower turnout primarily.
It backfired. It should have been clear in the West before initiated. When nations are attacked or threatened, most citizens express support for their leadership.
The Skripal incident likely boosted support for Putin along with increasing voter turnout.
His smashing triumph was unprecedented. In 2002, he won by a 52.94% majority, turnout around 40 million.
In 2004, he triumphed by 71.31% of the electorate, turnout around 50 million.
In 2012, his victory majority was 63.6%, turnout nearly 46 million.
His Sunday reelection was his most impressive landslide triumph. He’ll serve another six years as president until 2024.
Discussing the election results at his campaign headquarters on Sunday, Putin graciously said:
“It is obvious that without your direct, honest, professional support we would have had different results. That’s why I want to thank you all, and thank all the voters who voted for me,” adding:
“I think we all are a team…not only the people present here, but out there on the Square too, in Moscow, across the whole country…all people who voted for me and whose position allowed for this decent result.”
“It is very important for us so that…various political forces were motivated not by group, or some clan interests, but by a national one.”
Announcing changes in his new administration, he said “they must be performed by a president, who entered his new term, so now I will think about what needs to be done and how it should be done. All changes will happen after the inauguration,” adding:
“I don’t plan constitutional reforms. As for the prime minister, the government in common, I already said I’m thinking about it, but I will start contemplating it substantively after the inauguration.”
China is Russia’s most important strategic partner, he explained, adding he hopes for improved relations with Europe.
Below are the final election results:
Vladimir Putin: a 76.66% majority triumph
Pavel Grudinin: 11.80%
Vladimir Zhirinovsky: 5.66%
Ksenia Sobchak: 1.67%
Boris Titov: 0.76%
Maxim Surakin: 0.68%
Sergey Barburin: 0.65%
Western accusations of ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities are fake. International monitors said Sunday voting proceeded smoothly.
According to Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC), over 1,500 international monitors from 115 countries observed voting procedures - around 600 from OECD nations.
The CEC instituted extra transparency-enhancing measures, including live video in every polling station - 97,027 nationwide to assure proper oversight and accountability.
A CEC call center with hundreds of operators were on duty to respond rapidly to any irregularities.
Scattered minor ones alone occurred, nothing major, Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova saying:
“There are no major violations that could influence the expression of the will of Russian citizens and could result in the vote disruption.”
International monitors expressed similar views. The only disruption was a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack from multiple countries, CEC head Ella Pamfilova saying:
“We prevented DDOS attacks between 23:00 GMT and 02:00 GMT, coming from 15 countries.”
Russian nationals living abroad voted smoothly in scores of countries, hundreds of polling stations set up to accommodate them.
Around 72,000 Russian citizens were prohibited from voting in Ukraine, Moscow calling it “direct interference” in the nation’s electoral process.
Sunday’s election showed how democracy is supposed to work -superbly in Russia, shaming what goes on in numerous other countries, notably in America, a one-party state with two right wings.
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