Presidential Elections in the Russian Federation 2024: the Results are Predictable, the Consequences are Criminal (Part 1)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the presidential elections in the Russian Federation on March 15-17, 2024. V. Putin participated in the elections as a self-nominated candidate, but he was supported by the two ruling parties in the Russian Federation – “United Russia” and “A Just Russia”.

Complex measures that ensured V. Putin’s victory in the elections are highlighted. The constitutional reform of 2020 and the corresponding amendments to the legislation abolished the limitation of two terms of tenure in this position and introduced the right to run for this position without restrictions. For the first time, the elections were held over three days, early voting was allowed both at polling stations and at home locations, and remote electronic voting was introduced. The rights of the CEC regarding the final right to register candidates for this position were expanded. The following changes were made: the threshold for minimum participation in the elections, the conditions under which in the case of the participation of less than half of the voters in the voting, they became invalid, the obligation of public discussions between applicants for this position were eliminated.

Attention is drawn to the fact that leading analysts assessed these changes as a constitutional coup that ended with the establishment of Putin’s dictatorship. Well-known democratic figures of the Russian Federation stopped their political activity, emigrated or switched to active scientific or creative activities. Most of those who remained in Russia and continued to actively oppose Putin’s regime, to publicly criticize him, were thrown into prison or were killed.

It is noted that the elections turned out to be the most opaque, the most falsified in all the years of the existence of the independent Russian Federation. The results of the elections announced by the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation on March 21, 2024 testified to record voter turnout and the number of votes for V. Putin compared to previous periods. The negative reaction of the world community to the election results was natural. The leaders of the developed countries of the world, most of the countries of Europe, took note of the results of the elections in the Russian Federation, but did not congratulate V. Putin on his victory, because they did not recognize their results, considered them not open and transparent, organized and conducted under coercion and on an unheard-of anti-democratic basis. The Western world believes that these elections were not free and fair. International organizations of the UN, PACE, EU countries, and NATO members did not recognize the results of the elections in the Russian Federation and in the occupied territories of Ukraine, and condemned the holding of the presidential elections of the Russian Federation on the territory of another state – Ukraine. The PACE called for V. Putin to be officially recognized as the illegitimate president of the Russian Federation and recommended to “stop all contacts with the criminal Putin regime”. The President of Ukraine V. Zelensky assessed the presidential elections in the Russian Federation as unequivocally illegitimate.