Russian President Vladimir Putin, 71, won the recent Presidential elections by securing 87.97 per cent of the votes, results declared on Sunday (March 17) showed. With a six-year term set to follow, he will become Russia's longest-serving leader in more than 200 years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Putin on Monday. “Look forward to working together to further strengthen the time-tested Special & Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia in the years to come,” he said in a post on X. Leaders of China and North Korea also congratulated the Russian President. The United States, meanwhile, denounced the polls. A White House National Security Council spokesperson said, “The elections are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him.” The cases of opposition leaders such as Alexei Navalny, who died while lodged in prison earlier this year, are seen as representative of a larger, restrictive political ecosystem in Russia. Who were the leaders in the running this year and how did they fare? First, why Russian elections matter The Russian elections are often described by Western governments as being undemocratic, with Putin’s regime accused of repressing opposition voices. Since Putin first became Prime Minister in 1999, several of his opponents have been barred from contesting polls. In general, many critics believe that the election process is rigged from the beginning, with a limited number of candidates allowed to contest in the first place. Why such elections are conducted at all is to legitimise Putin's rule as the people's will, they argue. As an article from the Council on Foreign Relations notes, organising even orchestrated elections takes effort and resources. "If all goes as planned, as it has in previous votes, the election will highlight Putin’s deep support within the elites and the elite’s ability to mobilize the people for state purposes," it said. The polls are also meant to indicate support for Putin's policies, such as the ongoing war in Ukraine. Here are the top three candidates of this year's elections, in terms of the vote share they pulled after Putin. 1. Nikolai Kharitonov Kharitonov, 75, is a Member of Russia’s lower house of parliament and a member of the Communist Party. He stood second, polling around 4.7% of the votes. He contested presidential polls earlier in 2004, where he lost to Putin. Recently, when a BBC journalist asked him why he would make a better President than Putin, he said, "It's not for me to say. That wouldn't be right." An AFP report noted: “On paper the Communist Party is in opposition, but in practice it backs up Putin's party, United Russia.” In December 2023, Kharitonov said, "Our task is to consolidate the people during the election campaign so that there is victory, victory on all fronts." 2. Vladislav Davankov Davankov, 40, is from the New People party and he garnered 3.6% of the votes. According to Reuters, he served as the Deputy Chairman of the lower house of parliament and is from the New People political party, which his father helped to set up in 2020. “Davankov has tried to position himself as someone opposed to excessive curbs on people's personal freedom and — in the context of Russian politics — as someone who is more liberal,” Reuters reported. 3. Leonid Slutsky With 2.5% of the votes, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) nominee Leonid Slutsky stood fourth in the polls. He is the head of the lower house of parliament’s foreign affairs committee. He also contested the 2018 elections, where he got around 6% of the votes. His party is seen as being ultranationalist in its ideology. According to the US Library of Congress, “It aims to restore the Russian empire as well as foster greater political and economic ties with the Middle East as opposed to Europe and the United States.” Slutky’s conduct has also come under question at times. In 2018, a group of women journalists — including one from the BBC’s Russian service — accused Slutsky of sexual harassment. Later, the Russian Parliament’s State Duma Ethics Commission cleared him of the charges.
