President Putin's reelection in Russia .....
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| Russian Elections 2024 - A Walk Over |
.... with another unopposed walk over, and with 87.3% of the votes cast, and a 77.44% turnout (up 6.70 percentage points), was hardly a surprise to anyone.
He's removed (usually via death, imprisonment, or exile), all possible plausible opposition to his rule and now is effectively unopposed at home. This of course means that he has ruled as effectively the Tsar of all the Russia's since 1999 (in one guise or another), making him at aged 71, already the longest serving Russian leader since Josef Stalin (who ruled from 1922 to 1953 - 30 years 11 months), and of course should he serve his full term he could go on to beat that record.
In fact if you include the White Tsar's as well as the Red Tsar's, he has already moved well up the list:
- Ivan the Terrible (From 1533-1584, 50 years and 3 months).
- Ivan III the Great (From 1462-1505, 43 years and 7 months).
- Peter the Great (From 1682-1725, 42 years and 9 months).
- Catherine the Great (From 1762-1796, 34 years 4 months).
- Mikhail Romanov (From 1613-1645, 32 years 5 months).
- Josef Stalin (From 1922 to 1953 - 30 years 11 months).
- Vladimir Putin (From 09/08/1999 to present day - 24 years 7 months).
Now considering the fact that the first Rus rulers started ruling in AD 862, and then with the accession of Ivan I of Moscow, separated from being mainly Princes of Kiev (Ukraine .... part of Putin's claim to Ukraine still being an integral part of Russia), to becoming Princes of Moscow and eventual rulers of the Russian Empire, then to be the 7th longest ruler in 1100 years is somewhat unusual in a true democracy.
But that of course is the point .... Russia has turned away from democracy (or at least the possibility of democracy in the 1990's), and returned to being an autocracy, which is what its been for all but a few brief years out of the last 1,162 years.
Of course what the hell happens to Russia when Putin dies, is another question that should trouble us all, because we have already seen with the Yevgeny Prigozhin affair and Wagner Group rebellion that there are violent currents stirring inside Russia, that Putin only just keeps from surfacing, but that may well erupt when he steps down or loses his grip on power (one way or another).
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