Putin wins the elections with a record 87% approval. But a fracture remains in society

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Moscow – The plane has already begun its descent onto Domodedovo when the commander announces that the Moscow airport is one of three in the capital that have been temporarily closed. It’s noon sharp. We will have to wait for directions. There are security issues.
On the night between Saturday and Sunday, leaving its mark on the last day of the presidential elections, Ukraine intensified its drone launches over Russian territory. One was shot down by anti-aircraft fire right in the Domodedovo region.

The passengers sigh, but as soon as the alarm goes away and the plane begins its descent towards Moscow, they seem to quickly turn the page: even if the “special military operation” has once once more crept in, perhaps only for a moment in their lives. And life seems to flow on different parallel tracks: that of those who appear indifferent, or in any case try to surround themselves with normality; that of those who feel in line with the regime, and that of those who recognize themselves less and less in Russia which on Sunday evening proclaimed Vladimir Putin the winner of the vote. With a percentage even higher than the most optimistic forecasts: the president had to surpass his own record of 2018, at 76.69%. He was re-elected president of the Russian Federation for another 6 years with 87% of the votes, when the vote reached 99% of the sections. The data is reported by the official Russian agency Ria Novosti, citing the electoral commission.

The other candidates – the communist representative Nikolaj Kharitonov, the ultranationalist Leonid Slutsky, the moderate Vladislav Davankov – were left with crumbs, even smaller than the hypothesized 5/6%: in the preliminary results they fluctuate around 3%, without even showing too much regret . Turnout – once more higher than the 2018 record, as expected – rose to 74.7%.

It is the result that Putin chased to begin this fifth term, which will allow him to break a record by surpassing Stalin’s 25 years in power: the president intended to mortgage the next six years with absolute consensus, so that no one can question his next choices in Ukraine and within.

Operation failed

In reality, the operation was unsuccessful, figures aside. Three moments in recent months have highlighted the existence of a very clear fracture in society; the search for an alternative by a minority that might become increasingly difficult to silence. In January, support for the candidacy of Boris Nadezhdin, a little-known politician, convinced that the war in Ukraine was a mistake. Aleksei Navalny’s funeral on March 1st. On Sunday 17 March the initiative of the “South once morest Putin”, the invitation to anyone who does not share the regime’s line to go and vote at that time.