Well, first of all, who else would they vote for? There is no serious opposition that takes part in the election process. Those candidates that do participate don’t even pretend to be serious about fighting for the job. There’s a Trump-like figure who, unlike Trump, is very old news and doesn’t excite anyone, a Paris Hilton-like daughter of a former mayor of St. Petersburg whom nobody takes seriously, a member of the losing side of the 1993 constitutional crisis, a self-proclaimed Stalinist and some others who popped out of nowhere and nobody cares about them. So mostly this procedure exists to prove without saying that there’s no alternative. And it works.

Then there’s the question do they really vote for Putin? The answer is yes and no. It has been said that the government hopes to achieve 70% turnout and 70% votes for Putin. Which is considered a very ambitious goal. Even if this is achieved, that would be 49% of all those eligible to vote, less than half. Maybe less in actuality if one could eliminate all kinds of fraud, coercion and simply dishonest practices like officials promising something to voters in exchange for their votes. So maybe the real number would be 40%, I don’t know. So yes, he should get a landslide victory, but no, it’s not like all Russians vote for him.

Then there are of course people who do vote for Putin, and do this seriously and sincerely. There are like a million answers on Quora trying to explain his popularity, including one answer I gave. There’s the undeniable fact that, despite all the problems with the economy, Russians live in one of the most stable and prosperous periods in history, and it is associated with Putin, rightly or wrongly. There’s of course propaganda exaggerating his successes and being silent about his failures. One may argue that Putin is also a populist, siding with the majority on a lot of social issues. There’s of course this story about Russia being surrounded by enemies and the need to be united in opposition to all kinds of existential threats. So there’s that.

But I would also point to the fact that if Russians are serious about something, that would be integrity of the state. Many of them lived trough the collapse of a system, and it wasn’t pretty. Neither economically, nor socially. People were thrown into serious poverty. All of a sudden they realized they didn’t know what to do with their lives. Infrastructure collapsed. You could call the cops and they didn’t have gas to answer your call, so they asked you to give them some money to go to a gas station (true story, happened to me). You had to come to a hospital with your own medication, because hospitals didn’t have any stock of even simplest things like syringes. A wave of violent crime. There were a lot of things nobody would like. And Russians sure don’t.

So I would say that Russians certainly aren’t in a mood for experiments. Very recent history taught them not to be. Ukraine taught them not to be. Propaganda works to teach them not to be. And Putin, with all his pros and cons, isn’t a person who likes experiments. And he has nowhere to run in case of failure. The worse are his relations with the West, the better guarantee Russians have that he’ll stay with them until the end, whatever it is. So there’s your match of interests.

Propaganda. Russians believe in Putin’s Cult. Look at this dad breaking an iPad that’s now worth 1 million rubles, an equivalent of a new KIA car before the current batch of hyper-sanctions. Behold a true believer, Westerners.

The Russian man is breaking a CAR worth of money and screams at the camera that he doesn’t want any Western products. He will sacrifice them all for his president and his country.

His gleeful son’s turn to destroy evil American iPad. He’s giggling nervously although just a few days ago he played games and chatted with friends on it.

In our tradition from the Soviet era, elections are not about individuals who are going to rule the country. We have a rather cynical view of people on the top, irrespective of who they are, summed up in the Soviet-era saying “crap always floats up”. Even now, with some political competition, when we vote, our personal choice may be correct, but all the others always somehow mess it up at the ballot.

As a result, those at the top are not “good guys” versus “bad guys”, but rather “weak rulers” versus “strong rulers”. Czar Peter was strong = “good Czar”. Czar Nicholas II was weak and got toppled = “bad Czar”. President Gorbachev was toppled by Yeltsin = “bad ruler”. President Yeltsin was weak and became a toy in the hands of oligarchs = “bad president”. President Putin cleared up the mess and made the oligarchs toe the line = “good president”.

In the face of that, for an absolute majority of us the vote for Putin was isn’t a question if we like the guy or not, or whether what he’s doing with the country is right or not. It’s the question if we want the continued stability, wealth and predictability we have enjoyed for soon two decades—or an uncertainty of change. Of course we don’t want uncertainty! Please, give us six more years with no wars, open borders, pensions paid monthly and trains that go on schedule.

To give you an idea why we don’t like to change our rulers in Russia—even when they mess things up beyond imagination—consider the picture below. It shows the fate of our most prominent generals since the dissolution of the USSR. Take a closer look at the spikes of deaths at the start of Putin’s presidency and around the annexation of Crimea. The democratic rotation of elites that people in the West consider as a healthy thing for their societies, means something else here in Russia. It’s always a terrible mess, not only for generals, but for the entire nation.

Because we want to live, love, raise our children, take care of our parents, meet friends, enjoy spring, celebrate New Year, invent new things and keep what we have done and try to remedy what we have done wrong. We are normal people. We hate to hate and we love to love.

Putin assumed an enormous, almost unbearable, responsibility for the devastated country. Has anyone ever thought about this? Would any reader wish to take this kind of responsibility? Do you think it’s easy to rule a country with 9 time zones and 160 native (!) nationalities speaking their own languages? It might be a good idea to launch a computer or whatever game “become the president of Russia for one day”.

During 100 years, Russia has collapsed two times, razed to the ground. My grandmother was born into a noble family, lived in the family of “intelligencia” and died recently as a “middle class” person. Russia struggled through two world wars and repressions losing 100 million people on this way. Some of the cities had to be rebuilt from scratch. My mother speaks four languages and has two university degrees, and lives in St. Petersburg, one of the most beautiful cities of the world, and she still stocks food, like canned meat, flour, salt, and matches, just to “be on the safe side”. She knows what starvation is too well.

Why should we want to start this all over again because someone thinks Putin is a wrong person? As children, we smiled when our grandparents responded to some bad things happening in the country, even to Chernobyl, with a phrase, “anything is better than a war”.

Now I know what they meant. My grandmother was born in 1926 - wars, repressions, revolutions… At 82, in 2007, after the 1991 collapse, she drove to the Caucasus with her boyfriend of 72 (she called him “junior”). It’s about 2,000 miles across north-western, central, and sourthern Russia. She said she enjoyed every minute of it. They could travel safely and there were toilets along the road every 500 meters. That may sound funny and trivial, but there are only fields with no forest or bushes in south Russia, horizon-to-horizon. If taken short on the road, men can use a bottle. What can women do? Grandma said she would pray God for Putin after her death for these loos. I am sure she does.

Anything is better than wars. Revolutions are even worse.

I’m standing on Zubov Boulevard in central Moscow by the headquarters of the state-controlled Russian media group "Russia Today.” It’s spewing anti-Western narrative worldwide.

Next to Russia Today are the two massive gray buildings of the Museum of Moscow. They blend naturally with monochrome skies.

I came here on an early spring afternoon to watch a play of the experimental theatre, in which my friend’s brother’s wife stars.

It is based on Mark Ravenhill’s play “Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat.” It has strong undertones of anti-Western imperialism, for which it was nominated for prestigious Golden Mask Awards in January 2022.

State-owned Sber, FILA sportswear (Italy) and Golden Masks Awards are the sponsors of the show.

When the invasion of Ukraine began, the play was shelved out of fear that it could be interpreted the wrong way by some officious KGB agent.

A year later, state-owned Sber headed by former liberal Gref who’s stashed half a billion dollars in offshore accounts after the invasion according to Navalny team’s investigation has brought the play back to gently sell remaining liberals in Russia on the virtues of the military operation against Western aggression.

Standing is my friend’s brother’s wife Marina. She plays Liz in the first act "Paradise Lost.”

Liz cannot sleep because in the adjacent apartment her neighbor Ruth makes loud noises. Two soldiers pay Ruth a visit at night and begin to torture her with a hammer to extract names of her accomplices.

Liz who is initially sympathetic to Ruth believing that she has a violent boyfriend, allows herself to be persuaded not to interfere when she learns that Ruth is a merciless terrorist.

There are dialogues and instead of action one of the actors lifts a banner with a holding stick that says stuff like “Brian is breaking Ruth’s kneecap with a hammer” or “Susan is crying.”

The play makes allusions to some country in the desert (Iraq?) populated by savages who wear “towels around their heads.”

The characters are Anglo-Saxon civilizers who strive to overthrow a dictatorship and bring freedom and democracy to allegedly oppressed savages.

However, civilizers show themselves as miserable, unloved, and disheartened in the task. They torture, rape and kill locals over all the wrong reasons effectively presenting themselves as tyrants and power abusers.

They say "freedom and democracy” over and over again, two words that through endless repetition become empty signifiers having lost original meaning, convenient vessels to justify the injustices and evil done in their name.

Freedom and democracy. Freedom and democracy. Freedom and democracy.

At the end of the play, actors stood inside metal structural frames with led lights and two meter gaps between them. Industrial sounds emanated from the speakers. In the fight against tyranny , free and democratic people have built cages for themselves.

It is no coincidence that the state-owned Sberbank relaunched the play now.

It’s like the state assured in its strength and righteousness is speaking to the gathered liberals: Ukrainian leadership and their Western backers are not fighting for democracy and freedom. These words mean nothing to them.

Anglo Saxons are tyrants and murderers taking advantage of the Ukrainian population.

They are worse than us who are merely trying to reverse historical injustices.

According to my friend, support for special military operation among liberals has grown considerably in the last few months. Whatever they do at Russia Today and Museum of Moscow, it is working.

Little need to.

President Putin is so far the best ruler we’ve had throughout history. The streets are safe, banks are open, grocery stores stocked, and trains go on schedule. It’s true that the top guys hold us in contempt and are stealing like magpies—but the country is so rich that there’s still much left for us down here. We never lived such peaceful and wealthy lives like now.

Seems like it’s too early to go out with pitchforks and torches as yet.

What’s important is an extremely bad experience we had with rising up in arms against the government. The last two times this happened in Russia, in 1917 and 1991, the turmoil ultimately resulted in tiny, well-organized groups of men grabbing the power and making the country their playground.

There was only one episode when Russians—on their own, totally independently of the government—got together, armed themselves and successfully kicked the rulers out of the Kremlin. This happened in 1612, too far in the past to be an inspiration. Besides, the episode reminds our rulers too much of the “orange revolutions” in Ukraine, and makes them very nervous. A whole lot of government officials work day and night to prevent the 1612 thing from happening again in Russia any time soon.

To sum it up: our new wealth, the bad memories of revolutions, and very effective police work make sure President Putin will sit in the Kremlin as long as he wants.

Most Russia voters vote for Putin today because he’s returned the growth and self-confidence to Russia.

Just look at this graph of the GDP, translated to purchase parity and taken from Economy of Russia - Wikipedia. Boris Yeltzin’s 1990s were accompanied by chaos and halving of the GDP (PPP). Since Putin came to power, the GDP doubled again and finally surpassed the levels from the “advanced Soviet Union” years. The slowdown in recent years may be related to the annexation of Crimea and related sanctions. Many people in the West may have found Yeltzin – and the decline of Russia – fortunate but one shouldn’t need a PhD to understand why the Russians may view it differently.

But it’s not all about the economy, stupid. It’s also about the Russian status as an important enough power in the world. Russia can finally protect ideas of its own, instead of being dictated how to behave. These are viewed as nontrivial achievements that could be easily reversed if Russia elected an unknown or unpredictable leader.

Also, the optimism translates to the everyday life. So The Telegraph just wrote that Russia's 'Putin generation' [is] more active than their parents - and more pro-Kremlin. Lots of muscles and adrenaline sports can be found in the article. After all, Putin himself is a good role model for physical activities. Putin has naturally incorporated lots of the good things that were associated with the tzars, too.

I am not any passionate fan of Putin but I think that he’s really a conservative politician of the European style of the 1980s which is better than what we could expect in Russia these days. There’s no reason for some anti-Putin hysteria. I believe that most of the anti-Putin instincts are just signs of some general anti-Russian racism and prejudices and results of the widespread brainwashing in the contemporary West.

For a simple and obvious reason: RUSSIANS HAVE NEVER HAD A BETTER TIME TO BE ALIVE!

Don’t let haters and Western Media and Governments convince you that Putin is a bad guy. I had I very negative image of Russia before visiting there. Real experience have changed my views.

So let’s get to the facts. Compare Russia now with the Russia from the 90’s. It’s almost a different country.

Russian in the 90’s was the portrait of a failed state, corrupt, no money, no functional markets, mafia, prostitution, violence, oligarchs taking all the money. Common people left on their own, regions fighting wars against Moscow.

Look now: streets have order, no more rampant violence, Russia’s GDP is growing despite sanctions, they can even fight a “oil war” against Saudi Arabia. Russia now is a predictable country. Everything thanks to one man: Putin.

I know from experience what is to live in a chaotic country (I’m Brazilian) and I know how difficult is for a team government to take control of the chaos. What Putin pulled out is an amazing job. Nothing else. When I compare Putin to Brazilian presidents of the same period of time, I would vote for Putin. Look what we have now, Bolsonaro.

USA: Bush? Imposing american “democracy” because he could.
Obama: too focused in looking a nice guy, forgot how to deal with the real world.
Trump: Do I need to say something? Hillary was a disaster also,

You will say that Putin is a bad guy because is openly confronting the West. Let me correct you: he is strategically protecting Russia from Western aggressions (read USA). And Putin really tried to get closer to the West, but he was ignored. Read some reports from newspapers at the time, they were praising Putin, stating that he was friendly towards the West.

If it wasn’t from USA sanctions, Russia economy would be going just fine. They have a long road ahead of them in terms of development, but it could be worst and the 90’s are there to prove.

Why don't the Russian people rise up against Putin?

Good question. Only why should they? Look carefully at the pic in the Alex Gerulaitis’ answer. Do you see that individual, third from the left in the front line? That’s Garry Kasparov, the greatest chess player and the darling of the anti Putin’s West.

In Trump, Kasparov seems to see the same instincts exhibited by his Russian nemesis [Chess champion Kasparov: Trump win would threaten 'democracy worldwide']. That’s remarkable and make me ask in my turn: Is the American people going to rise up against Trump?

You may ask, Why should they? The obvious answer is, Because Kasparov says so. He says that Trump is bad and exhibits the same instincts as Putin does. Honestly, it would be even easier to throw Trump than to take down Putin, cuz Trump has still a long way ahead to prove himself and win the admiration of the American folks comparable with that of Putin’s among the Russians. So hurry up, the time is precious!

But maybe you think that Kasparov, while being a genius chess player nevertheless is a downright fool in everything concerning the real battles of life, not on the chessboard? If you think so, you’re right. After all, Bobby Fisher, another chess genius was totally nuts, wasn’t he?

I tell you what. You have asked a ridiculous question. Putin is the best thing what happened to the Russians in the last 100 years. Stop listening to the Washington’s propaganda. They are lying. Nobody is going to overthrow Putin. On the contrary – they would come and beg him to stay if he decides to quit. And I can assure you, not a single Russian dropped a tear when Khrushchev was forced to resign or when Brezhnev died. Neither are they missing Gorbachev or Yeltzin. With Putin it is a completely different story. If you know what I mean.

Why don't the Americans rise up against Trump? I know some Americans don't like Trump, but why aren't they doing it?

Same reason here. In my opinion I think Putin is a great president. And I respect your opinion if you don't like him.

But Putin has done a lot if good over his terms. Increased job payment. Decreased poverty, Crime. Here's a picture of 15 years under Putin.

And most of those have increased since then.

I don't see a reason to over throw him, and revolt against him. He isn't a dictator, he isn't oppressing us like Stalin, and Hitler would.

He's not killing us.

And plus, the great majority of people in Russia love, and want him to stay. But we know that he will step down in 2024. And after that, I hope we get a president that is almost as good as Putin is.

And hopefully, Putin can fix the corruption problem before he leaves, if not, hopefully the next one.

A few reasons.

1. This one is not, technically, an answer to your question, but to a broader question: ‘Why does Putin still win the elections?’. Well, because the votes are not counted correctly. There is a system in place to rewrite the final numbers as they (the authorities) will. Real support is a lot lower than the number of votes Putin gets at elections.
2. Not only the votes are miscounted, the elections are rigged as a whole. The candidates just can’t get registered.
3. During his years at power, Putin has destroyed everything that could move in the area of politics in Russia. The 3 ‘opposing’ parties present in the Parlament are actually a part of HIS political system, their role is to fake political activity. Real opposition is strangled in various ways: from soft measures (like destroying their election banners the second day of the election campaign) to being put to prison (Navalniy) and killed (Nemtsov).
4. Media is controlled. Almost all TV channels (with one exception) are controlled by the state; the exception is Dozd which is not broadcasted (only via satellites, cable and internet) which makes it almost inavailable for most of the population; noone knows it exists. Almost all the radiostations are controlled, as well as most of newpapers. The situation with internet media is a bit better, but they are having harder and harder time: for example, recently, Новости — Meduza was declared a ‘foreign agent’ which almost killed them (they lost all the ads contracts).
5. State propaganda is powerful. It uses point 4 to its full extent and tells people a lot of lies stuffed with ideas like ’90s were pure hell, thanks to Putin for saving us from them’ and ‘the West is trying to capture us, and everyone who is against Putin is an enemy helping the West to harm us’. One more way to neutralize possible opponents.
6. In the beginning of his presidency, Putin really listened to the economists and gave green light to some reforms which helped Russian economy recuperate; he also had good luck with oil prices skyrocketing (compare $100 for a barrel vs $8 during his predecessor’s term). So, really, during his rule for a lot of Russians the life became easier.
7. Low interest in politics. One of other answers to this question says that Russians are very politicized. This is wrong. The truth is that the state-controlled media is constantly talking about US, Ukraine, Europe and their problems (real and fictional), so a lot of brain-washed Russians like chatting about INTERNATIONAL politics (the way they understand it), but in the domestic politics Putin’s state makes everything to kill people’s interest in politics, elections and so on. Just to avoid them learning about possible alternatives.
8. Cowardice. People remember the 90s (they really were not too safe, not too abundant). Even if they see that now the situation becomes worse and worse with each year, they are still afraid of changes.

Now combine all these: Putin is the only strong person on the political field (because others are killed, jailed, bought or noone knows about them), people know him, under him we became wealthier (mostly due to good luck), and everyone you could hear (controlled TV, radio, papers) tells you how great he is. And there is always

and her magic election wand!

First you need to understand that ‘elections’ here are forgone conclusions. Putin has ruled Russia for 18 years and will until he passes away. I won’t delve too deeply here because I don’t want to disappear.

Putin is seen as the epitome of the Russian man by most older (30+) Russians because he is in shape, active, says what he thinks, takes care of the country, etc. This nation has very traditional gender roles and Putin is the iconic Russian man.

In the last election (2012) 65% of the population voted and 63% of those voted for Putin. There has been no real opposition for him, for various reasons I will not get into, therefore he is always the ‘winner’.

If you want to know more then Google this because those of us living in Russia have to be very careful answering questions like these if we value our ‘freedom’.

Well, it's difficult for us to conceive of the effects of a “single voice” propaganda without having experienced it ourselves, but they're heavily manipulated, to a degree most of us fortunately aren't aware is even possible.

The only analogy I can give you that you might be familiar with are conspiracists who entomb themselves in an “informational echo chamber” of their choosing, be it e.g. “flat earth”, “qanon”, “bigfoot”, “JFK” or “the faked moon landing”.

Well, most Russians are just as brainwashed about Ukraine having been subjected to a coup d'état by the US and other Western countries, that put in place a puppet government constituted by a cabale of drug addicted Jewish Nazis, whose main goal is to eradicate ethnic Russians from Ukraine.

It wasn't by their own choosing though, they were slow-boiled to this stage like frogs.

Most of us know it's preposterous, but for a big portion of the less educated Russian population it appears that it's not so simple.

Qanon lore seems just as preposterous to me, after all.

For most Russians, the only source of information they have access to is Kremlin-TV propaganda.

There's practically no independent sources of information left in Russia at all, local or foreign, but some of it still filters through to those who have relatives and close friends living outside of Russia.

Also, let's not forget that at least 15'000 people have been arrested in a little over a month in Russia for publicly disagreeing with Putin's demented war in Ukraine.

I'm not minimizing or apologizing the support Putin enjoys from the public in Russia, but let's keep in mind that gaining and bolstering this kind of support from “his” populace was one of his main goals with this war.

We have nothing to gain from dehumanizing the whole Russian population, I can assure you that many of them may indeed be misguided, but they just want peace, like you and I.

And seriously, 80% of approval rate?

What is it, North Korea? That number sounds a smidge “cuisined” to me…

Putin’s plan backfired quite badly anyway, he reminded the whole world that true democracy has a secret superpower.

Dissent is actually very much alive in Russia, otherwise there would be no need for a simple piece of paper with the words нет войны written on it to get people arrested so quickly these days.

Journalists who write the truth about Ukraine in Russia face 15 years in prison, and it looks like it might get even worse for them.

That should give pause to anybody.

The real enablers Putin counts on are the oligarchs who he made immensely rich at the expense of the Russian population. All they had to do was to promise their undying loyalty in return.

But he still needs the plausible approval of a large majority of the Russian population to stay in power in a plausibly legitimate manner.

He couldn't have done any of this without the active or at least tacit support of “his” oligarchs.

But a few of them have already spoken out against him.

Some seem fairly sincere, others seem to have transparent ulterior motives, but I have to hope that the tide is turning.

Cheers.

The total absence of competition is the most appealing quality of Putin. This is why a thick blanket of media silence on his real challengers like Navalny is so important for him, and so comfortable for most of us.

Our history convincingly teaches that every time when we need to make a major political choice between two, or more political forces, it always coincides with a period of turmoil, instability and wars. The Time of Troubles, the 1917 revolution, the lost Cold War, anything transformational, it’s always the same: the living standards drop, criminality rises, the weakest members of society suffer.

Therefore, when pollsters ask Russians “Do you want Putin to be re-elected or not?”, our trained Russian ear hears: “You really want to trade what you have for a round of uncertainty, chaos, or something worse?” Predictably, 80% don’t want that.

Misha, you should separate the flies from the cutlets. NOT A MAJORITY of Russians voted. The majority of those who came and participated in the voting voted. The turnout was not 78% percent. This figure was falsified and drawn for the convenience of legitimacy. According to independent experts and amateur researchers, the turnout was about 47% OF REGISTERED voters!!! Moreover, only those who were forced to come under the THREAT of losing their jobs, money, a “warm” place took part in the voting... Further, soldiers and officers of the Russian Army, police officers, the Russian Guard, ALL officials and their families, the FSB and their families and public sector employees who work in government agencies. Since the minimum turnout was canceled by the smart-ass lawyers, at least 1 person could come to the local polling station - and the voting and elections took place in this place! As a result, even if 10 million people voted, the elections took place!!! And 87% for Putin is a real fake!!!

Vladimir Putin is the president that the majority of Russians want to continue governing the country.

This is a fact. The West sees him as an evil autocrat, but the majority of Russians support him. He would not have been able to stay in power as long as he has without that.

Why do Russians continue to support Putin massively despite the fact that he remains an autocrat?

Simply because Putin has given the Russians something essential back. Of course, he has not brought the promised economic prosperity. Of course, the situation remains very difficult in everyday life.

But Putin has given back to the Russians the pride of being Russian.

The Boris Yeltsin period is still in everyone's mind. He had ridiculed the country in the eyes of the Russians. Putin himself had a very bad experience of it.

When he took power, Putin had one essential objective: to give back to Russia its status of world superpower from the military point of view. This succeeded, and even today, no one can neglect Russia.

As soon as this is the case, Putin reminds the rest of the world, as we can see with the Ukrainian episode at the beginning of 2021.

Putin consistently wins democratic elections. He enjoys broad support among the Russian people. Despite the sanctions Putin enjoys broad support among the Russian people. Over the past decade, he has brought the Russian people an unprecedented string of military victories in the Middle East, greatly expanding Russia’s sphere of influence. When the gains from these conflicts are consolidated, it will become clear that Putin has led the Russian people to a great victory.

It is predetermined because there are polls and polls show extremely high level of his support.

Top 10 most popular politicians in Russia are from Putin’s party and the second man after Putin is his Prime Minister (which is a huge achievement in itself).

In fact, many Russians would ignore the elections because there is no intrigue, so the government actively incentivizes them to vote.

I’ll cast my vote tomorrow (I am not voting for Putin)

For those who support Putin, voting is a way to show their support of Putin, his initiatives and the course he chose for the country. It is a way to show unity of Russian nation at the face of foreign threat.

BBC report on Russian elections (AI-generated):

Russians are very politicized, so they follow not only domestic political events, but also the Western press, where they do not see 95% of the truth about Russia and Putin in particular. You do not need to be a political strategist to not pay attention to the fact that the media of all Western countries literally work under the dictation of the US Democratic Party in relation to the Russian Federation.

The absence of Russianists in the West has led to the fact that reading articles about Russia causes either homeric laughter, or, if propaganda nonsense in the style of the Soviet stagnation is already completely written, then rage and anger. The worst thing is that no accusation against Russia is ever supported by any evidence, at most "highly likely".

The Russians are not afraid of sanctions, but they just hate that they are sucked out of the finger. It looks like an insult. Have you recently read at least one article with positive content? They do not exist a priori. Agree that this is unnatural, which means that it happens purposefully. In Russia, it is customary to support those who are unfairly offended and V. Putin is just under undeserved pressure. It is considered that the Russian Federation is an existential threat to the neoliberalism of the West, and therefore is an open enemy.

All the puzzles came together and two words appeared in the picture: enemy and war. Once there is a war, the people rally around the president, who does everything possible for Russian citizens. That's why Russians vote for Putin.

Why does 79% of the Russian population still support their "president"?

Greetings, Jakob Terrier . I am pretty sure you are not asking this question in good faith.

The truth is, it’s people like you who are the main reason Putin has so much support. We see the blatant Russophobia of the West, and we know - we have to fight them with all our might, or else they will kill us all. Hitler is dead, but his ideology is alive and well.

The official sanctions against Russian people show us that people like you are not a small minority, but the ruling party of the West. And of Ukraine.

Well, if you knew anything about politics, you would not need to even ask this question. Everybody knows that a small victorious war is good for a politician’s ratings. While getting boggled down in guerilla warfare for decades is not.

So far, the conflict in Ukraine is “small victorious war” for Putin. We’re totally kicking Ukrainian ass, while trying to keep damage to civilian population to a minimum. Of course, your government lies tell a different story, but we listen to our government lies, not your government lies.

Singaporean Lee Kuan Yew was in the highest position in Singapore from 1959 to 1990, and was important councilor position after that.

I read some Noam Chomsky (“The New Global Economy”), and Dani Rodrik “How the rich rule”, “Phishing for Phools” of Nobel Prize winners Akerlof and Shiller, and some “Propaganda” of Edward Bernays.

Let’s face it: there is no real democracy. Masses are mostly manipulated and under control. Rich has much bigger influence on the politics than masses. If you need proofs and examples — read the things I mentioned {I can add more, if you ask}.

Masses, although, can get more or less of what they want — in terms of employment, affordable energy, affordable housing etc... And it looks like Russian people get reasonable share of what they want.

“Free elections” are often in fact elections bought by the rich, “free press” deceives you for the rich, and the people who are or where “democratic” are happy when their sponsors get what they want — even when the majority of the population are unhappy. The Russian way of democracy is Majoritarianism — if majority gets the jobs, the affordable prices and tariffs etc.

While all democracy is illusion, when some majority gets what they want, they feel as if they are somewhat in control, as if their opinion matters. That may not match your definition of democracy, but you are not part of the Russian majority, are you?

I read The Singapore Story by Lee Kuan Yew. He wasn’t the politician of my type — I’m left-wing. But he was winning elections again and again working with majority. If you read his book, you’d find that they suppressed the opponents they found destructive, and regulated press according to their standards. But as the majority was getting more what they wanted, it supported the party of Lee Kuan Yew.

I won’t say that Putin is as good as Lee Kuan Yew, but he is a lot better at working with majority than many “democractic” leaders, actually serving the rich and ignoring needs of the majority.

Which presidency exactly?

Putin's first election was in the year 2000. Someone had to fill in for Yeltsin. A relatively popular Putin, in a see of deeply unpopular career politicians, snatched the win.

The next time around, in 2004, Putin went with a fairly good track record. So, come reelection.

In 2008, Dmitry "Iron Dimon" Medvedev of the same United Russia party went instead. Putin had two consecutive terms, so he couldn't stand for election constitutionally speaking. For the entire duration of Medvedev's presidency, former president acted as the chairman of the government, or prime minister really.

Come 2012, Putin ran again. It was technically a third term, but not a consecutive one, so he could run again. Moreover, prior to the elections, the term of one presidency was extended from 4 years to 6. He had a substantial lead in the polls over other candidates, so he won fairly easily.

In the year of our Lord 2016 Putin… ran again. What's curious about this time is that Putin ran as an independent. Every other time he ran as a candidate from United Russia. Still, a healthy lead in the polls, divided and bickering opposition, you know the rest of the story.

The next election is scheduled to take place in 2024. Constitutional amendments made it unconstitutional to run for more than two nonconsecutive terms. They also nullified all of the terms prior to the amendments, so technically speaking, Putin will be able to run for two more terms. Medvedev too, for that matter.

Will Putin run? I don't know, but I presume he won't. Vladimir Putin is a human being, who has been involved in running the country, in one capacity or another, for the last 23 years. That's tiring. Also, while his goodwill from the wider Russian populace is still immense, some want a fresh face. It does make sense to retire in an orderly fashion too, so as too avoid unhealthy competition for the top job years down the line.

Hell, I, and even some liberally-minded Russians, would probably vote for a two-term Medvedev presidency. Only future will tell us what happens next.

• Putin eliminates any serious competition. He arrests or kills anyone that could actually win.
• He also eliminated elections of governors, as they might then get a big enough power base to challenge him. Instead, he appoints governors who won’t oppose him.
• He does allows pathetic candidates to run, without messing with them, to give the illusion of democracy.
• If, despite all this, he still lost an election, he’d just falsify the results. Anyone who complained would be killed or arrested.
• But Russians do seem to admire a “strongman”, AKA thug. To many, being able to win no matter what methods are used is far more important than honesty, honor, obeying the law, justice, etc.

Yes, this is what happened, and everyone who doesn’t like Putin have to accept it.

I was there myself, in a polyclinic lobby turned into a poll station. There were lots of people and the moods were high. Ladies at the tables were checking the passports of voters with the huge books where they had lists of all people from the neighborhood. The ballot box had a scanner on top of it — the ballots were being scanned before dropping down the box, and the votes were counted automatically.

The next day I went to the official voting website. There, you can select your poll station and see the results. On my station, out of 1366 votes 930 were for Putin. No other candidate received more than 100 votes.

Yes, I’ve heard stories about violations, and probably they happened in some places. But I think the overall picture is truthful. Putin had won, and the majority of people really wanted him elected.

In 2018, inauguration of Putin as the president of Russian Federation was held behind the closed doors.

His motorcade zoomed through emptied out streets of Moscow. Commoners were not supposed to watch even the motorcade on its way to Kremlin. Where are the happy crowds cheering their fairly re-elected leader?

Whom Putin was going to rule? Definitely, not the people of Russia. Only oligarchs, intelligence service top brass, generals and officials were allowed to witness how he said the pledge on the constitution he would re-write in two years to guarantee a life-long presidency for himself.

2020. Another dictator’s inauguration, this time in neighbouring Belorus. After the re-elections president Lukashenko allegedly lost by a very wide margin.

Another motorcade making its way through empty streets. Secret inauguration behind the closed doors. Where are his constituents cheering him? After 24 years in power, Lukashenko can rely only on brutal force to remain in power.

Compare to the inauguration of Obama. The fairly elected president facing his people. In the open. No brutal force required - in four to eight years there will be a new president. Guaranteed by the Constitution.

“Are you [beep] or what ? Who ? Us ? You’re standing on your knees, Germans. You’re standing on your knees. Asking for our forgiveness. From 1941 to 1945. You’re asking for our forgiveness. [beep]. I’m telling you.

“I have four sons. And also two daughters. All of my four sons I will sacrifice them to you. You will not [beep] break Russia!

“I’ll give birth to more sons for myself. That’s how we are, Russian mothers. And how about you, Ukrainian [beep] mothers? [Beep beep.] Can you match this ? No [beep] way. Can’t [beep] do it. Yellow-[beep] .

[Sings in falsetto mockingly] “Glory to Ukraine. Glory to [beep]. Glory to everything in the world.”

In America , parents are worried about school shootings. In Russia, parents stage school shootings to steel their kids and prepare for inevitable sacrifices to the motherland.

In America, fathers take their sons to hunt animals. In Russia, children are taught to shoot enemies of the motherland.

Look how happy that Russian mother is that her little son has learned to use Kalashnikov at such early age.

In America , cheerleaders wear skimpy skirts and sport tops. Russian cheerleaders put on camouflage uniforms and balaclavas.

In America , field trips are to explore arts and sciences.

In Russia , field trips are to visit mobilization centers and learn about how their fathers don’t take physical or health tests and sent straight to warfront to defend Motherland in Ukraine .

Oleg Borisenko took part in combat duties in Chechnya, Syria and Ukraine (since 2014). He’s known in Tambov as the founder of military-patriotic club Rusky.

In spring 2022, the 57-year old put on a sticker on his car with the letter Z crossed out.

He was pulled over and subpoenaed to appear in court where he got fined 30,000 rubbles for discrediting Russian armed forces.

What’s the most peculiar is that Borisenko didn’t protest war in Ukraine.

In court he explained that letter Z does not represent Russian armed forces and it is not an official symbol of the special military operation, and moreover it looks like a Nazi swastika.

“I associate letters V and Z with Nazism and I have an extremely negative view of Nazism,” Borisenko admitted.

Russians are confused why they have to cosplay Nazis and Islamic State terrorists , and genuinely wonder why Kremlin doesn’t tap into their boundless potential to sacrifice their children and each other for a military adventure when the right symbols are presented and the right words with the right intonation and dictum said from the rostrum.

They don’t want a mumbling , bald old crook with his confused speeches that lack direction and clear meaning.

They want a Stalin who would order them sternly to pack up and volunteer to warfront to fight Nazis and put on red stars on the uniforms and battle tanks rather than Putin’s swastikas.

Most dictators will hold elections to try to give some legitimacy to their positions.

To make it appear that their people actually want them.

To give the semblance of a democracy.

I think it is based on insecurity.