Free Republic

Putin Re-Elected in Historic VictoryPutin reportedly secured a monumental win with 87% of the vote, becoming Russia's longest-serving president post-Stalin.Remote electronic voting sees a world record 94% turnout, according to the territorial Election Commission.Source:… pic.twitter.com/LwfcBenHZZ— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 17, 2024

As I walk around Borovsk, two things strike me about this town 60 miles (100km) from Moscow. First, there is almost no sign of the presidential election coming up this weekend. I see few election banners or billboards and no political flyers being handed out. Not surprising, really. The absence of election preparations mirrors the absence of drama surrounding a stage-managed event that will hand Vladimir Putin a fifth term in the Kremlin. The other thing you can't help noticing in Borovsk is the street art. It's everywhere. Much of it has been created by street artist Vladimir Ovchinnikov. All...

**SNIP** Obama breaks three decades of silence with call to Iranian president Obama began by congratulating Rouhani on his June election. He referred to the long mistrust between the two sides but said he believed the talks were already making progress. Obama Calls to Congratulate Putin As the New York Times reported earlier in the week, there are serious charges that Putin rigged the election: “A day after claiming an overwhelming victory in Russia’s presidential election, Vladimir V. Putin on Monday faced a range of challenges to his legitimacy, including charges of fraud from international observers and a defiant opposition...

Russian police wrestled opposition leader Alexei Navalny into a patrol wagon on Sunday, moments after he appeared at a rally to urge voters to boycott what he said would be a rigged presidential election in March. Video footage posted on social media showed Navalny appear on Moscow’s main thoroughfare, a few hundred meters (yards) from the Kremlin, to join several hundred supporters taking part in the protest, which the authorities had said was illegal. He had only walked a short distance when he was surrounded by helmet-clad police officers. They wrestled him to the ground on the pavement, and then...

MOSCOW (AP) — A 35-year-old Russian celebrity TV host who aspires to run for president in next March's election said Tuesday that Crimea belongs to Ukraine despite its 2014 annexation by Moscow — a bold statement that has drawn angry responses from Russian officials and lawmakers. Ksenia Sobchak also emphasized her critical stance by issuing a call for the release of the nation's political prisoners and denouncing official corruption at her first news conference since declaring her presidential ambitions.

<p>If you lived in Moscow, by this time today you would, probably, have cast your vote in the presidential election. With Vladimir Putin expecting nearly 70 percent of the vote, chances are that seven out of every 10 voters are feeling a sense of duty well done.</p>

Putin Wins Second Term With 69 Percent of the Vote, Exit Polls Show Mar. 14, 2004 By Steve Gutterman/ Associated Press Writer MOSCOW (AP) - As widely expected, President Vladimir Putin easily won a second term in elections Sunday with 69 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll. The poll, conducted by the non-governmental Public Opinion Foundation, surveyed 120,000 voters at 1,200 polling stations. Official figures with 15 percent of the vote counted gave Putin 66.5 percent, Central Election Commission chief Alexander Veshnyakov said. Ninety minutes before polls closed in heavily populated western Russia, electoral officials said that...

Vladimir Putin has won the Russian election with 69% of the vote, according to exit polls. Earlier, Putin cast his own vote before making a final appeal to voters. Authorities have estimated that a minimum 50% participation rate has been met. "Voter turnout is a little higher than on December 7, 2003, when the country elected deputies to the State Duma (lower house of parliament)," the head of the Central Election Commission, told Interfax news agency. In that poll, turnout reached 56%. The Itar-Tass news agency said more than 75% had voted in the far eastern Chukotka region while neighbouring...

Russians Vote, Low Turnout Putin's Only Threat Sat Mar 13, 2004 11:02 PM ET By Natalya Shurmina YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russians began voting on Sunday with most set to back the re-election of President Vladimir Putin, who is promising to end years of grinding post-Soviet poverty. The only real threat to Putin's triumph would be apathetic Russian voters failing to turn out in large enough numbers. At least 50 percent turnout is needed for the election to be valid. Incentives to lure voters to the polls in sunny Vladivostok -- where voting started seven time zones away from sleeping...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin looked on track to win re-election on Sunday, with early turnout reported high enough for a valid vote and his only real threat of voter apathy apparently evaporating in the spring sunshine. With voting under way across the country's eleven time zones, Russian media reported turnout in the sparsely populated east of the country had hit the 50 percent hurdle needed for the election to be valid. Putin cast his vote in Moscow on Sunday morning

<p>With the policies of pre-emption being much debated today, perhaps it is unfashionable to bring up a crisis that is rapidly reaching the point of no return. On the eve of Sunday's presidential elections in Russia, Vladimir Putin is on course to complete Russia's transition into an authoritarian state -- and it will have happened while the West not only stood by, but nodded its benign approval.</p>

A Promising Post-Soviet Russia By Paul M. Weyrich CNSNews.com Commentary February 23, 2004 For a decade, my colleagues at the Free Congress Foundation and I taught Russians about how to win elections and how to build a civil society. At the end of my final lecture I would always say, "We are not here to tell you what to do. We are here to tell you what we did that worked. But whether or not it will work for you is for you to determine. Ultimately you have to fashion a system that will work for you." At these same...