Bulletin No44 mars 2024 After three days of voting, the results of the presidential election in Russia are now known. With 75% of voters, V. Putin was re-elected with 88.48% of the votes (+11% compared to the 2018 vote). The second is the candidate of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation: N. Kharitonov very far with 4.37% (- 7.53% compared to the communist candidate of 2018). The other two candidates obtained 3.90 and 3.24% of the votes respectively.
It is a real plebiscite whose feature was certainly forced by what the Russians call: "administrative resources" but which is no less a witness to the popularity of the outgoing President and a desire to gathering in a particularly difficult moment linked to the war situation in Ukraine. Here is what D. Volkov, director of the Levada center [1] said in an interview with the newspaper l'Express published on March 17 : "We have clearly noted once again the flag effect on the popularity of Vladimir Putin. Already, in In the months leading up to February 2022 and the start of the war, when tension was rising between Russia and the West, the Russian president's approval rating was on the rise. But the most significant effect just happened. after the start of hostilities: it jumped as in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea and the start of the conflict in Donbass. Its approval rate is now between 80 and 86% compared to just over 60%. in 2021". The result from the polls is roughly close to this popularity index and must therefore be taken seriously to analyze the state of mind of the Russian population. This is not done by Euro-Atlantic leaders who distill a vision of things seeking to give the feeling of a divorce between the vast majority of the population and its leaders.
The war in Ukraine, presented from Russia's point of view by the new ruling class and the state as a war of NATO aggression against it, supported by unbridled nationalist propaganda, has therefore largely diverted the popular layers. of the fight against the capitalist system. Capitalist and state system which engaged in the plundering of social property and an almost total liquidation of the conquests of the socialist revolution.
This is all the more true since the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, instead of characterizing the war in Ukraine as a confrontation within imperialism, chose to support the power of the oligarchy. Its candidate may well proclaim on his electoral posters: "We lost with capitalism; that's enough", he has opened no perspective other than that of rallying behind V. Putin. Thus, speaking in the Duma on February 29, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, G. Zugianov, responding to V. Putin's statement at the federal assembly of the Russian Federation, declared: "This message [that of V. Putin] constitutes a positive and real step towards strengthening our security and mobilizing society. But if the problem of achieving the budget is not resolved, if the appropriate personnel is not formed, if the system of management and personal responsibility is not improved, many of the president's wishes will remain unresolved. I believe that Nikolai Kharitonov's program and our unique experience will always be in high demand. to everyone much success so that we can realize the wishes of the President and the electoral program of Nikolai Kharitonov. "
It was more difficult to explicitly provide support for the policy objectives declared by the government. In these conditions you might as well vote for the original as for the copy!
Russian workers, the population who continue, including among the younger generations, according to polls, to overwhelmingly see a positive content in the USSR, have nothing to expect, any more than their Ukrainian brothers, from this war wanted by their capitalist leaders and their allies, nothing but blood and tears. It is high time for a groundswell to rise to say no to the imperialist war on the territory of Ukraine. As the International says: "Peace among us, war on tyrants! Let us strike the armies , Hold our guns in the air and break ranks!" Not a penny left for war, dissolution of military pacts, respect for the sovereignty of peoples and nations!