Vladimir Putin was officially recognized by Russia on Monday as one of the candidates for the March presidential election, which he is very expected to win.
Since the year 2000, the 71-year-old has been in charge of Russia; Vladimir Putin has been elected four times as president and temporarily held the role of prime minister under a system in which opposition has almost completely vanished.
What changes constitutional amendment passed in 2020 brought?
Vladimir Putin , who has served as the nation’s president or prime minister since 1999, has benefited from several 2020 constitutional amendments allowing him to run for two more six-year terms, potentially extending his tenure until 2036 as a result of a contentious constitutional amendment passed in 2020.
Since Soviet tyrant Josef Stalin, who passed away in 1953 at 74, the 71-year-old Vladimir Putin has already held the position of longest-serving head of the Kremlin.
The Central Election Commission said that it has registered right-wing firebrand and Putin loyalist Leonid Slutsky as candidates for the election, in addition to Vladimir Putin who put in his own nomination.
Critics of the Kremlin have said that the poll would be held across three days, from March 15 to 17, which will make it more difficult to ensure transparency. Human rights organizations claim that past elections were tainted by fraud and that it is likely that impartial observers will not be allowed to record the results.
Although there isn’t anticipated to be any significant opposition for Vladimir Putin , leftist contender Boris Nadezhdin has gathered enough signatures to be officially registered as a candidate. He may or may not be permitted to run, though, and the Kremlin has stated that it does not view him as a credible opponent.
Vladimir Putin approved a measure amending the presidential election statute in mid-November, which limits the poll’s scope and grants the TsI the authority to alter the voting process in areas where martial law has been imposed. Vladimir Putin is now authorized to compete in the election as the fourth contender.
Crackdown on dissent and opposition
The others are State Duma lawmaker Nikolai Kharitonov, a member of the Communist Party; Leonid Slutsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party; and State Duma Deputy Speaker Vladislav Davankov, who represents the New People party. However, no credible opponent has surfaced due to an ongoing crackdown on dissent and opposition.
Vladimir Putin is now authorized to compete in the election as the fourth contender. The others are State Duma lawmaker Nikolai Kharitonov, a member of the Communist Party; Leonid Slutsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party; and State Duma Deputy Speaker Vladislav Davankov, who represents the New People party.
However, no credible opponent has surfaced due to an ongoing crackdown on dissent and opposition.
The government’s persecution, which escalated after the 2018 presidential election and has been accelerating gradually since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has driven a large portion of Russia’s organized political opposition outside.
Since Vladimir Putin took office, authoritarianism has been the trend in Russia. However, this tendency has become more established than before in 2018.
His outspoken demands for ending the conflict against Ukraine, ending military mobilization, having talks with the West, and ending the nation’s persecution of LGBTQ+ movement have drawn thousands of Russians to the polls around the nation. He indicated last week that he had the necessary support to file as an official contender, but he hadn’t submitted an application yet.
Earlier, the TsIK rejected a petition signed by 26 former and present MPs from throughout Russia asking them not to register Putin as a candidate. The petition highlighted the several legal transgressions that occurred while gathering signatures from Vladimir Putin’s allies.
For instance, election authorities were gathering signatures in favor of Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, the second-largest city in the nation, even though it is against the law to do so.
The petition claimed that while gathering signatures, local authorities were pressuring Vladimir Putin , which is likewise against the law. This year’s presidential election is the first after Putin gave the order to invade Ukraine on a large scale in February 2022.
Moscow’s ties with the US and the EU have severely deteriorated, tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have lost their lives in the conflict, and the Russian economy has been severely impacted by Western sanctions as a result of the invasion.
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