With no end to the war in sight, U.S. intelligence estimates that 315,000 Russian troops have so far been killed or injured in fighting, as of Dec. 12, 2023. The Ukrainian government does not release casualty tolls, but Washington reported in August 2023 that the number of Ukrainian combatant deaths likely stands around 70,000. The U.N. approximates that more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have died.
Nearly two years into the conflict, the Russian economy has weathered punitive Western sanctions surprisingly well. Thats in part because many countries of the global south have been reluctant to join what they see as a Cold War redux between the United States and Russiaand are upset about hypocrisy in Washingtons selective condemnation of Russias alleged wartime abuses versus, say, Israels.
President Vladimir Putins approval rating is at a sky-high 85 percent as of November 2023, according to the Levada Center, a reliable independent Russian pollster. The center cites public opinion surrounding Putins so-called special military operation and the conflict in Ukrainethe Kremlin has warned it will block websites that use the term war or invasion.
Putin, a staple of Russian politics for the past quarter century, likely needs no introduction in the pages of Foreign Policy. Yet it bears repeating that domestic office and global notoriety are nothing new to Putin. Now an indicted criminal by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, Putin began his career as an intelligence operative for the Soviet-era KGB before taking office as president in 2000. He has been in power nearly continuously since then, with a brief four-year stint as prime minister from 2008 to 2012 due to term limits. (Loyal apparatchik Dmitry Medvedev served as president during that time.)
Putins tenure at Russias helmwhether as head of state or head of governmenthas been marked by a descent into authoritarianism, rampant corruption, and systemic human rights abuses. Independent media has been all but shut down; political opponents are intimidated at best and allegedly poisoned at worst. Putin has battled Chechen separatists domestically and ensnared himself in numerous military campaigns beyond Russias borders. Even before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia had annexed the Crimean Peninsula and supported Syrias Bashar al-Assad with a brutal bombing campaign in Syria. The Kremlin also fought wars in the former Soviet republic of Georgia and counts proxies the world over.
In a sign of how much Russian democracy has regressed under Putin, the president has decided that term limits do not matter in 2024 like they did in 2008. Until recently, Russias constitution forbade more than two consecutive six-year presidential terms. (Putin extended a terms length from four to six years in 2008, effective 2012.) But in 2020, when a member of Putins coalition conveniently proposed that the charter be amended to drop this rule, the president was on board. Though it was never in doubt, Putin made his candidacy for a fifth term official in December 2023.
The Russian presidential election will be a three-day affair from March 15 to 17. It is not expected to be free or fair and will almost certainly cement Putins stranglehold on the countrys political system. After the last presidential vote in 2018, monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said candidates competed on an uneven playing field and that, in Russia, elections almost lose their purpose. That year, in a flex of territorial muscle, Russia held votes for the first time on the annexed Crimean Peninsula. This year, Putin intends to extend the presidential contest to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
Technically, Putin has competition. But in practice, no other presidential candidate stands a chance. His main rival, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, is behind bars and banned from running. Another potential contender, ultranationalist Igor Girkinwho has decried Putins posture in Ukraine as tepid and called the president cowardlyis also in prison. The long list of other politicians who have expressed interest in a run will likely register in the single percentage points.
Despite the bleak circumstances, voter turnout in Russia rivals that of U.S. presidential elections. In the 2018 presidential election, more than 67 percent of eligible Russian voters went to the polls.
The biggest challenge to Putins rule is likely already behind himand it didnt come at the ballot box. In June 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the paramilitary Wagner Groupa private contractor that had, until then, been seen as doing the Kremlins dirty work in military entanglements from Syria to Malirebelled against Putin in an armed revolt.
In Foreign Policy, Yale University professor Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon M. Huntsman Jr., and author William F. Browder called the mutiny the biggest existential threat Putin has faced in his more than 20-year rule.
Putin quickly quashed the revolt, and Prigozhin has since died in a plane crash, widely believed to have been caused by the Russian government. Former NPR Moscow Bureau Chief Lucian Kim wrote that, in the short-lived Wagner uprising, the full madness of Vladimir Putins dictatorship was on display. It will be that, too, when Putin extends his presidential mandate even further in March.
Read more:
In Russia's 2024 Elections, Putin Gears Up for a Fifth Term - Foreign Policy
- EU and Ukraine explore special tribunal for Putin and war officials - Euronews - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Do Russians Believe Putin's Propaganda? | TIME - TIME - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
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- Escaping Putin's War Machine - Reveal - Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
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- What's behind Putin's attempts to link Ukraine to Moscow terror attack? - Voice of America - VOA News - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
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- 'Ein Schock fr Putin': Ukraine Bombs Three Russian Air Bases, Then Vows To Send Its Drones Further Into Russia - The New York Sun - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- France's Macron Tries to Jolt Europe Into Taking Tougher Approach With Putin - WSJ - The Wall Street Journal - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
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- Will Keen on Playing Vladimir Putin in Patriots on Broadway: The Sign of a Great Liar Is the Ability to Lie to Oneself - Variety - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Kim Jong Uns correspondence with Putin shoots up amid cooperation over Ukraine - NK News - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Cathy Young on Putin's American Fans - Reason - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Putin regime cracks down on Central Asian immigrants The Militant - The Militant - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Putin, Russia and what might have been | Daily Gate City - Keokuk, Iowa | mississippivalleypublishing.com - Mississippi Valley Publishing - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Do Russians Believe Putin's Propaganda? - AOL - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Putin and the Superiority Myth - Center for European Policy Analysis - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Vladimir Putin Pushes Russia To Make Consoles To Compete With PlayStation And Xbox - Kotaku - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Reality is chipping away at Putinism - The New Statesman - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Putin Is No Ally In the War on Terror in 2024 - 19FortyFive - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Opinion | Joe Lieberman and Gordon Humphrey: How to counter Putin's lies - The Washington Post - The Washington Post - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Opinion | I am proud to have spoken out against Putin's crimes in Ukraine - The Washington Post - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Georgia's government plays into Putin's hands as it moves to suppress art and culture - The Conversation - April 6th, 2024 [April 6th, 2024]
- Russia election: Putin declared winner of race that was never in doubt - The Associated Press - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Exclusive: Putin to visit China in May - Reuters - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Putin Urges Russians to Unite on Ukraine War - The New York Times - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
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- How Xi and Putin took parallel paths to become life rulers - Business Insider - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- The West's New Approach Can Save Georgia From Putin - Newsweek - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Putin had to contrive a landslide because he knows cracks are showing in Russian society - The Guardian - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
- Basking in his Russian election win, Putin talks about political nemesis Alexei Navalny's 'sad' death for the first time - CNBC - March 20th, 2024 [March 20th, 2024]
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- Analysis: Is the GLSDB One of Nuland's Promised 'Nice Surprises' for Putin? - Kyiv Post - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
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- Russia's war on Ukraine a 'huge issue' for EU as Putin's ambitions are 'much more far-reaching' - FRANCE 24 English - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Putin to visit Turkey in February, Kremlin says - Yahoo News - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Putin to visit NATO member Turkiye on 12 February - Middle East Monitor - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Putin Officially Registered For Russian Presidential Election Amid Suppression Of Opposition - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Putin vs the West: At War TV review world leaders offer candid reflections in BBC documentary - Financial Times - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- An unlikely challenger to Putin brings a rare show of defiance, creating a dilemma for the Kremlin - The Associated Press - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Analysis: China's rising star visits U.S. over warming Putin-Kim ties - Nikkei Asia - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Kremlin denies report Putin reached out to the US about ending Ukraine war - Business Insider - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Belarusian President complains to Putin that Ukraine and Baltic countries "seek better life abroad" video - Yahoo News - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Putin Vs the West: At War review did Liz Truss really storm out of her own office? - The Guardian - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- U.S. Ally Could Hand Biden New Trump Card for Dealing with Putin - Newsweek - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
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- Kremlin denies report that Putin reaching out to US, might drop key demands on Ukraine - Reuters.com - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- In Ukraine and Europe, a concern: Has Putin outlasted the US? - The Christian Science Monitor - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Russian Election Authorities Pick Pro-War Symbol, Putins Favorite Slogan for Presidential Campaign Promo - The Moscow Times - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Russians who want rid of Putin pin election hopes on anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin - The Guardian - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
- Secret Putin Residence Discovered Near Finland Dossier Center - The Moscow Times - February 1st, 2024 [February 1st, 2024]
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- Vladimir Putin is trying to entice foreign nationals with the offer of Russian citizenship to help him fight against Ukraine - Fortune - January 5th, 2024 [January 5th, 2024]
- Putin's 'peace' is a partitioned Ukraine - The Spectator - January 5th, 2024 [January 5th, 2024]
- Russia's War on Woke: Putin Is Trying to Unite the Far Right and Undermine the West - Foreign Affairs Magazine - January 5th, 2024 [January 5th, 2024]
- Putin's Drive to Rewrite History Snares a Retired Lithuanian Judge - The New York Times - January 5th, 2024 [January 5th, 2024]
- Putin makes passing Ukraine reference in New Year's Eve address - Reuters - January 5th, 2024 [January 5th, 2024]
- Putin Vows to Keep Up Bombardment After a Russian City Is Hit - The New York Times - January 5th, 2024 [January 5th, 2024]
- Putin lauds Russian unity in his New Year's address - POLITICO - January 5th, 2024 [January 5th, 2024]
- Zelenskiy speaks of war, Putin makes passing reference in contrasting New Year speeches - Reuters - January 5th, 2024 [January 5th, 2024]
- Putin Says He Wants Peace in Ukraine But on Russia's Own Terms - Bloomberg - January 5th, 2024 [January 5th, 2024]