(es) Vienna, March 20, 2024
Press reaction to Vladimir Putin’s unsurprising landslide 87% victory in the Russian presidential “election” was well-covered in the latest multi-lingual Eurotopics Press Review
Under the headline Democracies caught between ideology and reality, The Economist (London) commented: “Across the world, dodgy elections are common: at least 28 of the 76 countries holding elections this year will not have a fully free and fair vote. … America, Britain, the European Union, and Ukraine have declared the result of Russia’s presidential election illegitimate. Yet even as Western countries decried the poll as a sham, they ensured that voting was carried out peacefully at their Russian embassies. Genuine democracies are caught between an ideology that compels them to evangelise and the reality of an increasingly undemocratic world.”
Ukrainska Pravda looks for the right words to describe Putin: “Even if the suspicion that millions of votes in Putin’s favour were falsified is correct, there can be no doubt that he would have also won the election in Russia if the count had been fair. … The Russians also support the war he has unleashed against Ukraine. … This is the Russians’ war against our state, not ‘Putin’s war’. That’s why all concepts that separate Putin from his people and pin the blame on him alone are incorrect. … That is why we will not use the term ‘self-appointed president’ even after Putin’s re-inauguration. … He is and remains: ruler of the Russian Federation.”
Next step could be general mobilisation, warns Romania’s Jurnalul National: “With a massive turnout and a landslide victory, Putin wanted to demonstrate that he has overwhelming support for the invasion of the neighbouring country. This means the final tally could give the Kremlin leader a major boost for the war in Ukraine. He can now order a general mobilisation in Russia, with additional troops being sent to the front. As US military aid for Kyiv continues to be blocked in Congress and European commitments are delayed, this would put enormous pressure on Ukraine’s defences and shift the balance in this confrontation in Moscow’s favour.”
AEJ links on Russia/ Navalny:
- Navalny – press reaction. What now?
- Alexei Navalny dead at 47
- Navalny feature film wins Oscar in LA – infuriating Putin fans
- Navalny film: interview with Bellingcat man in exile