Putin’s term-limit win suggests stagnation, not strength
By Adam Taylor
July 2, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. GMT+2
The vote came with little regard for the worsening pandemic. The government lifted almost all of its novel coronavirus restrictions on June 24, although confirmed cases now top 650,000, making Russia the third hardest-hit country in the world, after the United States and Brazil. When Putin cast his vote in Moscow on Wednesday, he chose not to wear a face mask, unlike staff members at the polling station.
Hubris has helped bring down previous Russian leaders. Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Moscow Center argues that Putin held this week’s vote to “cement the state of affairs that followed Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, which sent his approval ratings soaring.”
“In reality, that world has long been eroded,” Stanovaya writes. His popularity has fallen to a historic low.