Putin Vows Russia Can not Be Held Again In Victory Speech

MOSCOW, Mar 18: Vladimir Putin mentioned Russia wouldn’t be “intimidated” as he hailed an election victory that paves the way in which for the previous spy to change into the longest-serving Russian chief in additional than 200 years.
The entire 71-year previous’s main opponents are useless, in jail or exiled, and he has overseen an unrelenting crackdown on anyone who publicly opposes his rule or his army offensive on Ukraine.
“I wish to thank all of you and all residents of the nation in your help and this belief,” Mr. Putin mentioned in a information convention on March 18 at his marketing campaign headquarters in Moscow hours after polls closed.
“Irrespective of who or how a lot they wish to intimidate us, irrespective of who or how a lot they wish to suppress us, our will, our consciousness – nobody has ever succeeded in something like this in historical past. It has not labored now and won’t work sooner or later. By no means,” he added.
With greater than 80% of voting stations having submitted outcomes, Putin had secured 87.2% of all votes solid, official election knowledge confirmed – a document victory in a presidential election the place he confronted no real competitors.
The three-day election was marked by a surge in lethal Ukrainian bombardments, incursions into Russian territory by pro-Kyiv sabotage teams and vandalism at polling stations.
The Kremlin had solid the election as a second for Russians to throw their weight behind the full-scale army operation in Ukraine, the place voting can be being staged in Russian-controlled territories.
Drunk from energy
Mr. Putin singled out Russian troops combating in Ukraine for particular thanks in his post-election speech in Moscow.
And he was unrelenting in claiming his forces had a significant benefit on the battlefield, even after per week which noticed Ukraine mount a few of its most important aerial assaults on Russia and wherein pro-Ukrainian militias barraged Russian border villages with armed raids.
“The initiative belongs completely to the Russian armed forces. In some areas, our guys are simply mowing them – the enemy – down,” he mentioned.
Kyiv and its allies slammed the vote – which was additionally staged in elements of Ukraine below Russian forces’ management – as a sham. President Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out at Mr. Putin as a “dictator” who was “drunk from energy”.
“There is no such thing as a evil he won’t decide to lengthen his private energy,” Mr. Zelensky mentioned.
As early as Friday, the primary day of voting within the election, EU chief Charles Michel had sarcastically congratulated Putin on his “landslide victory”.
If he completes one other full Kremlin time period, Putin may have stayed in energy longer than any Russian chief since Catherine the Nice within the 18th century.
Allies of the late Alexei Navalny – Mr. Putin’s most outstanding rival, who died in an Arctic jail final month – had tried to spoil his inevitable victory, urging voters to flood polling stations at midday and spoil their ballots.
His spouse, Yulia Navalnaya, was greeted by supporters with flowers and applause in Berlin. After voting on the Russian embassy, she mentioned she had written her late husband’s title on her poll.
Navalny
Some voters in Moscow answered the decision from the opposition, telling AFP they’d come to honour Navalny’s reminiscence and present their opposition in the one authorized means attainable.
“I got here to indicate that there are lots of of us, that we exist, that we aren’t some insignificant minority,” mentioned 19-year-old pupil Artem Minasyan at a polling station in central Moscow.
Mr. Putin mentioned the protest had had no affect and that those that spoiled their ballots would “need to be handled”.
In his first public feedback on Navalny’s loss of life final month, Putin known as his passing a “unhappy occasion”.
Utilizing his title in public for the primary time in years throughout a televised information convention, Mr. Putin mentioned: “As for Mr. Navalny. Sure, he handed away. That is at all times a tragic occasion.”
Mr. Putin mentioned a colleague had proposed swapping Navalny a number of days earlier than he died for “some individuals” who’re at present held in prisons in Western international locations.
“The one that was speaking to me hadn’t completed his sentence and I mentioned ‘I agree’”.
Former Russian chief Dmitry Medvedev in the meantime congratulated Putin on his “splendid victory” lengthy earlier than the ultimate outcomes had been resulting from be introduced.
And state-run tv praised how Russians and rallied with “colossal help for the president” in addition to the “unbelievable consolidation” of the nation behind its chief.
Not alone
At Navalny’s grave in a Moscow cemetery, AFP reporters noticed spoiled poll papers with the opposition chief’s title scrawled throughout them on a pile of flowers.
“We dwell in a rustic the place we are going to go to jail if we communicate our thoughts. So after I come to moments like this and see lots of people, I realise that we aren’t alone,” mentioned 33-year-old Regina.
There have been repeated acts of protest within the first days of polling, with a spate of arrests of Russians accused of pouring dye into poll containers or arson assaults.
Any public dissent in Russia has been harshly punished for the reason that begin of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and there have been a number of warnings from the authorities in opposition to election protests.
The OVD-Information police monitoring group introduced that not less than 80 individuals had been detained throughout almost 20 cities in Russia for protest actions linked to the elections. (Companies)