Vladimir Putin won 87.3% of the vote in Russia’s March 2024 presidential election, his highest result ever, up from 76.69% in 2018. NBC News reported the figure once more than 99% of ballots had been counted. Al Jazeera, working from earlier returns, put him at roughly 87 percent, the best showing in post-Soviet Russian history.
The vote ran over three days. Nobody expected a contest.
Rivals who never reached the ballot
The three men standing against him came from parties that reliably back the Kremlin: Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communists, Leonid Slutsky of the nationalists, and Vladislav Davankov of New People. Kharitonov finished second with under 4 percent. Two candidates running on anti-war platforms, Yekaterina Duntsova and Boris Nadezhdin, were kept off the ballot.
Alexei Navalny, the best-known opposition figure, had died in an Arctic prison the month before. His supporters and many Western leaders believe the Kremlin was behind it. His team still called “Noon against Putin” protests, and people lined up at polling stations in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Al Jazeera said independent observers could not verify how many took part. Navalny’s widow voted in Berlin, “writing his name into the ballot.”
At his press conference Putin named Navalny publicly for the first time since the death. He said he had agreed to a proposed prisoner exchange that would have freed him.
How he got here
The route to a fifth term was constitutional as much as political. Putin won the presidency in 2000 and again in 2004, then moved to the prime minister’s office from 2008 to 2012 to sidestep the limit on consecutive terms. He came back as president in 2012 and won again in 2018. Amendments passed in 2021 reset his term count, which lets him stay until at least 2036, when he will be 83.
At 71, he was already in his 24th year as Russia’s leader, with Joseph Stalin’s record as the longest-serving modern ruler within reach.
The reaction
Western governments dismissed the result. A White House National Security Council spokesperson said: “The elections are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents.” British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the vote “is not what free and fair elections look like.” Zelenskyy called it an “imitation” with no legitimacy.
Leaders in China, North Korea and Iran sent congratulations.
The Kremlin spokesperson waved off fraud allegations, saying the “unbelievable level” of support made “speculation about illegal elections” groundless. Four Ukrainian regions annexed in 2022 voted in a Russian presidential election for the first time, and the result landed on the tenth anniversary of Crimea’s annexation.
Putin used his victory remarks to address the pressure from abroad. “No matter who or how much they want to intimidate us…our will, our consciousness, no one has ever succeeded,” he said.
The economy gave him cover at home. Prices had risen and labor was short, but official statistics showed wages climbing despite Western sanctions, according to NBC News.
Sources
- Putin extends his rule over Russia, claiming landslide win after election with no real opposition (NBC News)
- Russia's Putin hails victory in election criticised as illegitimate (Al Jazeera)
