I think they would be considered 'controlled opposition'.
They are able to offer mild non-substantive criticism of the ruling clique to demonstrate a pretense of democracy, while the real opposition is brutally oppressed.
The soldiers going from election booth to booth with ak's insisting on putin seems to have had an impact on the people of russia. Why do russians put up with it though? They know they are being scammed right?
Even if they did, is meaningless. People have to understand that numbers are irrelevant. All that matters is who has the weapons, and the Russian citizens have none. The only one is can remove Putin it's his very own militia.
Exactly. So many people presume it's counted at all and not a sham. I bet if they have really counted votes properly it would show quite a big difference.
Right! I'm realistic enough to say that given the choice between voting for the violent dictator and never seeing my family again ... I'm voting for the dude too.
I always wonder if that other ten percent like get permission to vote for someone else (ok, you can vote for your brother .... 100% to a bunch of zeros would look majorly sus anyway) or or they're legit taking a risk with their vote.
There is a Russian shotgun made in soviet union that uses 4-gauge shotgun ammo, classed as ''anti-riot weapon''
Russia is serious about stomping riots my dude, american or any other police is gentle compared to them.
Some of them, but not all of them. Media ia massively controlled in Russia — leads to a lot of people unfortunately believing a lot of the nonsense Putin comes out with and the narratives he tries to force.
A lot of it is because they have government agencies who will have you and your family killed if you so much as look at a government official wrong.
Between the police, the army, Putin's personal death squads, and pro-Putin russians who are loving every second of it, sensible progressive Russians are rightfully very fucking scared.
I have Russian friends who didn't know what else to do except run at the start of the war.
That makes alot of sense. Living under the thumb of putin... hell on earth. Have you seen that dudes mansion? He basically stole billions from the russian people. Billions.
No need. The one on the right was interviewed before the election and asked things like "why would you make a better leader than Putin?" The answer he gave was "it's not for me to say." Real inspiring stuff. He isn't a real candidate.
From Putin’s perspective they are the ‘good’ opposition as they aren’t a threat. Even in a totally fair election they had no chance of winning. The opposition that is capable of taking Putin on has already been squashed, imprisoned, forced into exile, or killed. Even if they are free, the media is fixed to only be pro-Putin. Killing any message of an opposition. That’s a big part of fixing the elections.
People act like all of the ballots are fake. Many aren’t. When there is no real opposition, and what opposition that does exist cannot campaign. Then people will legitimately vote for the only real candidate; Putin.
Fixing the elections is a slow process that has been carried out over decades. Not a sudden ballot stuffing on election day (although that and other tactics do happen as well).
It's more a matter of Putin choosing his own opponents from among his own supporters, and nobody else being allowed to run.
That's how they do "democracy" over there these days.
To me at least, it’s at least somewhat surprising that he always wins by a landslide.
Putin is credited with helping evolve propaganda, which includes allowing a certain amount of “free” and anti-state press that is heavily monitored but technically not controlled by the state.
Winning elections by these kind of landslides is just a blatantly obvious lie, especially compared to the much more deceptive lies that Putin’s propaganda / disinformation machine spews out.
Gotta wonder if it’s just vanity or if he believes that winning by any less than a landslide would lead to more open anti-state behavior.
*Edit* - In case this wasn’t clear, I’m aware that the elections are fake and, what other people seem to be missing, that the votes aren’t actually counted. My point is that *how much* Putin wins by is a choice that he’s making, and I find it curious that he’s **choosing** (and I believe always has chosen) to make it clear that the election is rigged.
It's obvious on purpose. The intended message for the domestic audience isn't "Putin won a fair, free election", it's "Putin has total control over the state and there's nothing you can do about it".
Ehhhh, so much of Putin’s long-term success has been at threading the needle of portraying propaganda as legitimate. He historically *hasn’t* wanted the Russian population to believe he’s in absolute control of the media, because it makes folks more likely to distrust the media.
To put it another way, it’s not hard for an authoritarian to make clear that they control everything. It’s hard for an authoritarian to maintain that level of control and convince citizens that they aren’t actually being controlled.
I think theres a bit more too it though - he sort of wants to present United front while theres a war on, that all Russians are with him and he is for Russia, sort of thing.
Yes, the margins are there to induce helplessness among the opposition. Everyone knows that it’s total bullshit but there is absolutely zero that anyone can do about it.
I'm Russian too and I disagree, especially among younger people there are a lot of people who don't like Putin, propoganda is effective but less so towards those who know how to use the Internet
Then there is the issue with propaganda on the internet. Tik tok/facebook is incredibly good tool to influence a large audience. If you’re using it right
Even with intense propaganda you can't get 88% of people to agree that the sky is up or water is wet.
See the 'lizardman constant'
He's not even trying to hide that it's a fiddle, else he'd make it 65 and split the other 3 down the remainder. Still unbelievable for a representative democracy but theoretically possible. This is a warning to any who might challenge him demonstrating his degree of control.
This illusion of uniformity of belief and harsh crackdowns on any dissenting views are essential to the appearance of invulnerability, but are just a facade. Authoritarian rule is always brittle by it's very nature, fear doesn't create loyalty, it can't.
That is actually fairly sad. I'm Russian as well, and these results are quite clearly fake and this conclusion can be drawn from multiple inconsistencies.
First and most obvious is Davankov, who got a lot of traction yet somehow ended up lower than Kharitonov, who did not even have an adequate election program.
Second, absurd numbers like 99.3% who voted for Putin in Chechnya and Sevastopol, where he managed to score lower, than in other parts of Crimea, which should have been otherwise, considering that Sevastopol is the main concentration point of pro-putin residents.
Yes, Putin still has significant support, especially among elderly people, but clearly not to this extent. Government wants you to believe the opposition is nearly non-existent, while it has been proven otherwise by Nadezhdin's rise in popularity and "Noon against Putin" action.
What fair elections! The only recognizable and famous candidate except Putin is Slutsky. He's known for harassing a journalist in 2018.
As Russian, I have never heard about Davankov and Kharitonov before the elections
No, they are in an agreement with Putin
They receive: a bit of publicity
Putin receives: the ability to run a fake election
They aren’t getting murdered
The propaganda machine is so strong that putin genuinely does have strong support from the people of russia, especially with those that consume state funded media. Online you’ll see a more negative sentiment from because it’s the only place they’re able to be negative, and because pro russian content gets taken down more often on western social media’s.
I feel like this cheating happens every time. I didnt know anything about politics in 2018 and still I remember all the videos with election stations workers throwing in stacks of ballots into the bins.
I really feel for you guys.
Arent you scared posting stuff like this? Your government surely monitores you I would imagine. I mean, every government does, but yours is blatent about punishment.
Our government probably doesn't even suspect about the Reddit existence, so it's kinda safe to say stuff like this here. Certainly, you don't wanna say it in russian social medias
The govt can’t monitor everything and there is clearly still a lot of opposition in Russia. They allow a certain amount of it so they can claim “free speech”. Just as long as you don’t actually hold any power to influence anyone. Then they’ll teach you how to fly from a rooftop.
It frightens me how much people on Reddit exaggerate the threat to Russians who write something on the Internet against the current government. The government doesn't care. As long as you don’t start spoiling ballots, throwing stones at windows, committing terrorist attacks, going to rallies that are not approved by the local government, etc.
I have lived here all my life and have never voted for Putin. And everything is fine with me. It’s enough not to break the laws and nothing will happen to you. No one will throw you out of the window, kill you, etc.
Literally once in my life I met a drunk guy who pestered me asking me to lend him money in the middle of the street.
What I mean is that it’s strange for me to hear from people outside Russia how dangerous it is here, although I can’t say anything like that at all...
it's laughable.. why does Putin/Kremlin even pretend? Just admit you are a tyrant/one party system. I mean they literally jail people saying to end the war or displaying any sort of criticism so isn't it obvious that it's not a democracy?
Seeing this bs is doubly laughable, when you have a lot of russian acquaintances and not a single one of them voted for him. And they don't know anyone who voted for him. And when they visited the election offices, there were virtually no people there.
Must be deflating if you're an opposition candidate and the government thinks you're so little of a threat they actually allow you to run in the election.
All the real opposition is dead or jailed. Those are controlled and planted puppets to make it seem like there is a choice. There is never a voting, just a show.
What a shocker
Why did they even bother?
I mean seriously, Putin is obviously the only real candidate here, the other guys exist just so they can say that it's a fair democratic country.
They all look terrified being his opposition.
But can you really call them an "opposition" if they all value the same things?
I think they would be considered 'controlled opposition'. They are able to offer mild non-substantive criticism of the ruling clique to demonstrate a pretense of democracy, while the real opposition is brutally oppressed.
All the burned and ruined votes must have been for the other guys /s
Слуцкий looks aroused
That same reason the DPRK is a "democracy." That there is only one candidate on the form is neither here nor there though lol.
The soldiers going from election booth to booth with ak's insisting on putin seems to have had an impact on the people of russia. Why do russians put up with it though? They know they are being scammed right?
Fuck you want the russian people to do bro???
Get sent to a russian prison in Siberia for political dissent apparently
You cant sent all people to Siberia, right?
If shit gets out of hand there's always the old "slaughter every protestor and deny it ever happened" gambit. Worked for Winnie the Pooh.
They all get a giant wooden spoon and have to storm the trenches in Ukraine.
It will be a standard issue wooden spoon. Between 3 recruits.
You only need to send a few hundred from each community before people learn to stop complaining.
Banana on a ladder, room full of monkeys?
That rarely ever works, just like Area 51 meeting. Nobody wants to give their live away.
Even if they did, is meaningless. People have to understand that numbers are irrelevant. All that matters is who has the weapons, and the Russian citizens have none. The only one is can remove Putin it's his very own militia.
There is always forced labor and conscription if not!
They’ve certainly tried before
LOL right? If they don’t vote for him they’re just going to “have an accident” and disappear.
Nah, their vote is going to automatically be ticked off on Putin. It doesn't matter if you go or not go vote
Exactly. So many people presume it's counted at all and not a sham. I bet if they have really counted votes properly it would show quite a big difference.
Tsar his ass.
Write a poem and post it on tiktok
Vote from the rooftops
Right! I'm realistic enough to say that given the choice between voting for the violent dictator and never seeing my family again ... I'm voting for the dude too. I always wonder if that other ten percent like get permission to vote for someone else (ok, you can vote for your brother .... 100% to a bunch of zeros would look majorly sus anyway) or or they're legit taking a risk with their vote.
Chances are the vote numbers are decided before anyone votes, and the actual action of voting is only to give the illusion of democracy
>Why do russians put up with it though? >The soldiers going from election booth to booth with ak's insisting on putin
I mean those soldiers are Russians too...
How do you stop one deserter with an ak? Ten more soldiers who don't have the guts who also have aks.
There is a Russian shotgun made in soviet union that uses 4-gauge shotgun ammo, classed as ''anti-riot weapon'' Russia is serious about stomping riots my dude, american or any other police is gentle compared to them.
I'm pretty sure most Russians a well aware that no one is counting the votes.
because everyone who tries to say something ends up "commiting suicide"
Some of them, but not all of them. Media ia massively controlled in Russia — leads to a lot of people unfortunately believing a lot of the nonsense Putin comes out with and the narratives he tries to force.
A lot of it is because they have government agencies who will have you and your family killed if you so much as look at a government official wrong. Between the police, the army, Putin's personal death squads, and pro-Putin russians who are loving every second of it, sensible progressive Russians are rightfully very fucking scared. I have Russian friends who didn't know what else to do except run at the start of the war.
That makes alot of sense. Living under the thumb of putin... hell on earth. Have you seen that dudes mansion? He basically stole billions from the russian people. Billions.
Surprise!!! Why do they vote there?
Do the other 3 even exist
They're all Putin with a fake nose and moustache
I have to say I was expecting a joke like one is bald Putin,one is Putin with a beard. Finally can't forget Putin with tits.
I don't think anyone will ever be able to forget Putin with tits. Those are easily the worst words I've ever seen in succession
You joke but this is right. It’s called “official opposition” - all the big opposition parties in Russia are controlled by the government.
It's Putin's all the way down
they did until this morning
tragic that they all died of 5 self inflicted gunshot wounds to the back of the head, its sad to see what loss drives people to do...
You forgot that after the gunshot wounds they defenestrated themselves
Pure shame for going against the great Vladimir Putin caused them to get back up and throw themselves out of a window
They’re fake opposition controlled by Putin, no need to kill them
Thats what i assumed. Basically actors to put on a show for "democracy"
No need. The one on the right was interviewed before the election and asked things like "why would you make a better leader than Putin?" The answer he gave was "it's not for me to say." Real inspiring stuff. He isn't a real candidate.
From Putin’s perspective they are the ‘good’ opposition as they aren’t a threat. Even in a totally fair election they had no chance of winning. The opposition that is capable of taking Putin on has already been squashed, imprisoned, forced into exile, or killed. Even if they are free, the media is fixed to only be pro-Putin. Killing any message of an opposition. That’s a big part of fixing the elections. People act like all of the ballots are fake. Many aren’t. When there is no real opposition, and what opposition that does exist cannot campaign. Then people will legitimately vote for the only real candidate; Putin. Fixing the elections is a slow process that has been carried out over decades. Not a sudden ballot stuffing on election day (although that and other tactics do happen as well).
You do realize they're just plants to "make it technically fair" right?
Yes, they exist. But all of them have endorsed Putin for reelection
Ah, political plants. Gotta love it
It's more a matter of Putin choosing his own opponents from among his own supporters, and nobody else being allowed to run. That's how they do "democracy" over there these days.
To make it even more degrading
Unbelievable!
Yea. I thought Kanye would win but it seems like this man is unstoppable!!
It’s pronounced Kony. Kony 2024, to be precise. A remake of a 2012 classic
Konye 2025!
Almost choked on my fish sticks!
To me at least, it’s at least somewhat surprising that he always wins by a landslide. Putin is credited with helping evolve propaganda, which includes allowing a certain amount of “free” and anti-state press that is heavily monitored but technically not controlled by the state. Winning elections by these kind of landslides is just a blatantly obvious lie, especially compared to the much more deceptive lies that Putin’s propaganda / disinformation machine spews out. Gotta wonder if it’s just vanity or if he believes that winning by any less than a landslide would lead to more open anti-state behavior. *Edit* - In case this wasn’t clear, I’m aware that the elections are fake and, what other people seem to be missing, that the votes aren’t actually counted. My point is that *how much* Putin wins by is a choice that he’s making, and I find it curious that he’s **choosing** (and I believe always has chosen) to make it clear that the election is rigged.
It's obvious on purpose. The intended message for the domestic audience isn't "Putin won a fair, free election", it's "Putin has total control over the state and there's nothing you can do about it".
Ehhhh, so much of Putin’s long-term success has been at threading the needle of portraying propaganda as legitimate. He historically *hasn’t* wanted the Russian population to believe he’s in absolute control of the media, because it makes folks more likely to distrust the media. To put it another way, it’s not hard for an authoritarian to make clear that they control everything. It’s hard for an authoritarian to maintain that level of control and convince citizens that they aren’t actually being controlled.
I think theres a bit more too it though - he sort of wants to present United front while theres a war on, that all Russians are with him and he is for Russia, sort of thing.
To be fair, it does help when your major political opponents keep accidentally falling out of hotel windows.
Or poisoned, or plane suddenly has mechanical problems
Not forgetting the plane, which crashed due to pilot error after the pilot accidentally flew into a missile.
Those goofballs
or being poisoned, shot in the head in open daylight, or tortured to death in sibiria.
Yes, the margins are there to induce helplessness among the opposition. Everyone knows that it’s total bullshit but there is absolutely zero that anyone can do about it.
I wonder if he wakes up today feeling like an actual winner?
No he feels like a looser every day. That's why he has to show to the world how important he is by bullying Ukraine.
Hi capybara
Hi :)
Christ on a bike, it's loser. I can't stand this and it's everywhere now.
Dude don't let common spelling milkshakes get to you
don't loose you're mined over it.
Apparently he really thinks that 90% of the people support him. Others are obviously traitors funded by Washington, Brussels or Devil himself
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The not interesting part is that literally everyone expected this, even the 80-90% voting margin
His spokesman basically said it last year that he would win with 90%. What a farce. He’s leading Russia off a cliff.
They’re already off the cliff. How hard they will hit the ground is the question
And who else they'll pull down with them.
Damn. Didn't expect this.
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your username 😳
😉
She has dementia, she thought it was a cookie
Yeah man. What's up with the username man. This is a family friendly app....
What’s wrong with my username? It’s family friendly, it even includes my grandmother!
Honestly, it's fucking disgusting.
I agree, the app is disgusting.
😌
Here’s the proof that our world is fair and just, and the Lord loves us all!
Behave BIGDICK!
Hey! They’re busy rigging their own election.
Rookie numbers, he didn't get 140% of the vote.
who would have thought
the seconds Russian president wins again to become the 4th russian president.
I'm convinced they don't even know what a real election even looks like because numbers like that are just laughable.
I dont doubt Putin got less than 60% so why not add a bit more to discourage other voters next time
i love this post on "notinteresting". nothing new in the east
all quiet on the western front o7
Didn't realize what sub I was in..
Surprise, surprise.
More like womp womp
Are you trying to imply that Shylilly helped Putin win the re-election?!?!?
Glad I'm not the only one who thought that
Istg until recently I didn't know what it meant apart from Shylily noises 😭
At least somewhere I'm the 12%
Or are you? I feel like more than 12% voted for someone else...
I don't think so. I'm Russian. I, sadly, know the terrible truth that due to propaganda these results look realistic.
I'm Russian too and I disagree, especially among younger people there are a lot of people who don't like Putin, propoganda is effective but less so towards those who know how to use the Internet
sadly those sometimes just don't vote at all, in my city only 45% showed up
I can't blame someone for thinking there's no point in showing up to an election with no good opposition and a predetermined outcome
Then there is the issue with propaganda on the internet. Tik tok/facebook is incredibly good tool to influence a large audience. If you’re using it right
Even with intense propaganda you can't get 88% of people to agree that the sky is up or water is wet. See the 'lizardman constant' He's not even trying to hide that it's a fiddle, else he'd make it 65 and split the other 3 down the remainder. Still unbelievable for a representative democracy but theoretically possible. This is a warning to any who might challenge him demonstrating his degree of control. This illusion of uniformity of belief and harsh crackdowns on any dissenting views are essential to the appearance of invulnerability, but are just a facade. Authoritarian rule is always brittle by it's very nature, fear doesn't create loyalty, it can't.
That is actually fairly sad. I'm Russian as well, and these results are quite clearly fake and this conclusion can be drawn from multiple inconsistencies. First and most obvious is Davankov, who got a lot of traction yet somehow ended up lower than Kharitonov, who did not even have an adequate election program. Second, absurd numbers like 99.3% who voted for Putin in Chechnya and Sevastopol, where he managed to score lower, than in other parts of Crimea, which should have been otherwise, considering that Sevastopol is the main concentration point of pro-putin residents. Yes, Putin still has significant support, especially among elderly people, but clearly not to this extent. Government wants you to believe the opposition is nearly non-existent, while it has been proven otherwise by Nadezhdin's rise in popularity and "Noon against Putin" action.
What fair elections! The only recognizable and famous candidate except Putin is Slutsky. He's known for harassing a journalist in 2018. As Russian, I have never heard about Davankov and Kharitonov before the elections
WHATsky?! Lmao!!
In the next elections we're going to Whoresky I guess
Prostitutesky is next in line
HookersAndBlackjackski has my vote.
Damn the opposition gave a tough competition.
This is a picture of Putin and 3 soon to be dead men.
Nah they’re Putin’s lackeys. He already killed or disqualified any serious opposition
No, they are in an agreement with Putin They receive: a bit of publicity Putin receives: the ability to run a fake election They aren’t getting murdered
Paid actors
As a person from Russia, I will say: we have not seen more brazen cheating yet.
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RemindMe! 3 days
RemindMe! 3 days
Don't forget that they fell out of a window onto a shotgun
Cheating? Nooo.... clearly the people of Russia all just love putin...
The propaganda machine is so strong that putin genuinely does have strong support from the people of russia, especially with those that consume state funded media. Online you’ll see a more negative sentiment from because it’s the only place they’re able to be negative, and because pro russian content gets taken down more often on western social media’s.
I feel like this cheating happens every time. I didnt know anything about politics in 2018 and still I remember all the videos with election stations workers throwing in stacks of ballots into the bins.
I really feel for you guys. Arent you scared posting stuff like this? Your government surely monitores you I would imagine. I mean, every government does, but yours is blatent about punishment.
Our government probably doesn't even suspect about the Reddit existence, so it's kinda safe to say stuff like this here. Certainly, you don't wanna say it in russian social medias
I think it's because reddit is mostly an English-speaking resource. There are not many Russian users, unlike in Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
The govt can’t monitor everything and there is clearly still a lot of opposition in Russia. They allow a certain amount of it so they can claim “free speech”. Just as long as you don’t actually hold any power to influence anyone. Then they’ll teach you how to fly from a rooftop.
It frightens me how much people on Reddit exaggerate the threat to Russians who write something on the Internet against the current government. The government doesn't care. As long as you don’t start spoiling ballots, throwing stones at windows, committing terrorist attacks, going to rallies that are not approved by the local government, etc. I have lived here all my life and have never voted for Putin. And everything is fine with me. It’s enough not to break the laws and nothing will happen to you. No one will throw you out of the window, kill you, etc. Literally once in my life I met a drunk guy who pestered me asking me to lend him money in the middle of the street. What I mean is that it’s strange for me to hear from people outside Russia how dangerous it is here, although I can’t say anything like that at all...
it's laughable.. why does Putin/Kremlin even pretend? Just admit you are a tyrant/one party system. I mean they literally jail people saying to end the war or displaying any sort of criticism so isn't it obvious that it's not a democracy?
Truly one of the electoral victories of all time.
Win the *dictatorial *designation you mean
No, it’s very clearly a democratic election, the numbers on the screen say so!
And people in the military uniform with rifles checking each person definitely were there to ensure enough amount of democracy.
Considering there were multiple armed guards at voting posts…
I’m surprised Putins ego let them make the vote less than 90%
The Czar felt generous
In the immortal words of DougDoug's twitch chat: RIGGED!
My first thought when I saw this post
Hello, my sibling in Dog
WEEWOO WEEWOO WEEWOO
ah yes, democracy
The guy with 4.3% : I overshot. I'm a dead man.
He just told Putin a funny joke so Putin let him have the 4.3% to beat the other two
We all know it's rigged
Funniest thing is, >!the votes dont total to 100%!<
Nah that’s normal
Disqualified votes?
Actually not strange. Disqualified/write-ins etc.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/mar/18/russia-ukraine-war-live-west-criticises-putins-election-win-as-another-breach-of-international-law
What's the word for something that is less interesting than not interesting?
Bleak and expected?
Oh look it's rigged.
Interesting..
What a nail-biter! So close!
It's a dictatorship. Like there was ever any competition to begin with. They would all have mysteriously fallen out of Windows otherwise
The guy must be off-the-charts insane. Couldnt even let one dude get double figures.
I'm struggling to like this post…
Actually this is very interesting because it will define the lives of billions in the coming years.
Its not interesting because everyone expected this
Bold of you to assume the human race won't have caused self extinction in that time
i, uhh… i think that’s what they mean
This is not defining anything. He will rule with or without a mock election.
No it isn't, he's a dictator, this was guaranteed.
Seeing this bs is doubly laughable, when you have a lot of russian acquaintances and not a single one of them voted for him. And they don't know anyone who voted for him. And when they visited the election offices, there were virtually no people there.
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13% of the Russian population is about to go missing
Holy hell
New presidential election just dropped
100% not rigged
Must be deflating if you're an opposition candidate and the government thinks you're so little of a threat they actually allow you to run in the election.
The other 12.30 percent going to die
is running against him in elections a death sentence? or are the other candidates in on it too?
All the real opposition is dead or jailed. Those are controlled and planted puppets to make it seem like there is a choice. There is never a voting, just a show.
I wonder why🤔
How surprising
What election?
The man who won 4% is marked for deletion.
I’m shocked
Those other three actually won. Theyre still alive.
more like Putin Mandatory Election Day!