By Şafak Erdem
On March 17th, Vladimir Putin won the Russian presidential election with 87.8% of the votes, according to the announced results. The turnout was over 74% with the candidate Nikolay Haritonov from the Communist Party receiving 4.7%, Vladislav Davankov from the New People’s Party 3.6% and Leonid Slutskiy from the Liberal Democratic Party 2.5% of the votes. 1.4% of the votes were deemed invalid.
In the 2018 presidential elections, Putin had gained 76.69% of the votes, and in 2012, 63.6%.
UWI author Mehmet Perinçek evaluated the election results.
Mehmet Perinçek highlighted the most significant conclusion of the results is the “Russian people’s unified stance behind the Special Military Operation against Ukraine and the collective West”. Perinçek stated: “The outcome and high turnout can also be seen as a vote of confidence in the military operation. It’s worth noting that other candidates also supported the military operation. Also, the results demonstrate the failure of plans of the West. Since the beginning of the operation, the West has been trying to provoke the Russian people against Putin and the military operation, especially imposing sanctions aimed at putting Russian people in a difficult position. The results also proved that orange revolutions or provocations have no ground in Russia.”
Government and opposition together
Perinçek also emphasized that the sanctions and bans on Russia by the West have backfired: “The West’s moves to eliminate Russian culture, writers and artists, lectures on Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky, Chekhov from university curriculums, etc., all of these have backfired. When we look at the results of the elections, we see that Russia’s opposition and government have come together on national issues. There were 4 candidates in the elections: The Communist Party, the Good People’s Party, and the Liberal Democratic Party, along with Putin’s United Russia. All of them support Putin’s stance against the West on Crimea and Donbass issues.”
“Propaganda on democracy and human rights has been proven untrue”
Perinçek also noted that the Western propaganda on democracy and human rights has been proven untrue: “Observers came from all over the world. There were also observers from Türkiye. No irregularities were found in the elections.” Pointing out that elections were canceled in Ukraine under the pretext of war, Perinçek said, “While the West remained silent about this, Russia conducted its elections in a democratic manner, even in war zones, in accordance with democratic principles.”
Embracing the society intellectually
Lastly, Mehmet Perinçek stated that after these elections results, Putin and the ideas he represents will gain more traction in Russia. One of Russia’s main issues in the coming period is the “construction of an ideology that embraces society intellectually” says Perinçek and adds: “It is important to ensure that this is adopted by the society. Putin’s successful handling of this will show that he will continue this line more decisively and internationally. Winning the support of the people will also enable Russia to take decisive steps on the Ukrainian front or other fronts.”