Surprising zero people, Vladimir Putin on Sunday "won" his fifth term as Russia’s president.
The result was not close: Russia's electoral authorities say Putin took 87% of the vote with 77% turnout. A landslide was never in question, as Putin has systematically eliminated any opposition to his rule.
Putin has now ruled Russia for 25 years. When he first became president, no one had ever heard of "YouTube,” Italy’s economy was still bigger than China’s, and Britney Spears ruled the Billboard with “One More Time.” But now, a quarter of a century later, is Putin more powerful than ever?
Consider:
- His economy has largely weathered sanctions and is humming again — on a war footing.
- He faced down an insurrection from his own warlord protege last year.
- He dispatched his most eloquent and charismatic critic to the grave.
- The war in Ukraine wasn’t the four-day cakewalk to Kyiv he imagined, but Russia again has the upper hand in a grinding war of attrition as Ukraine scrambles to find more military aid.
- The Putin-curious Donald Trump leads the polls ahead of this fall’s US presidential election.
To be clear, there are plenty of reasons to believe that Russia is a long-term loser as a result of Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. Willis Sparks recently outlined them here.
And Russia today is a far cry from the booming country of 2006-2012 that was pumping oil at $120 a barrel and winning bids for the World Cup and the Olympics while Putin gallivanted around on a horse, in an F1 car, or in a giant Siberian crane disguise.
But Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin currently has virtually unfettered control over the economy, society, and war machine of a nuclear superpower. The big question now is what he’ll do with that power next, and who might stand in his way.