this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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Russian President Vladimir Putin can choose not to hold presidential elections next year because he will “obviously” win re-election, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said late Sunday.

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[–] [email protected] 121 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

That he will win them is indeed obvious. Since there have not been fair elections in Russia for quite some time, one cannot expect these to be fair.

[–] [email protected] 72 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Also, any relevant opposition tends to end up poisoned or jailed or both.

[–] Specific_Skunk 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Hey now, windows and balconies were doing the heavy lifting (dropping?) earlier this year. Must have been a shortage in poison due to the embargos.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Not having elections would make it more transparent to what is going on though. It should not be in Putin's favour to just stop having them. Maybe he can't afford the bill of having one this time.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago

What transparency do you want after all those jailings and murders?

[–] dogslayeggs 3 points 2 years ago

There is also the added cost of rigging all those machines and stuffing the ballot boxes.

[–] [email protected] 108 points 2 years ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 63 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I’m surprised he waited so long, honestly. all this tip-toeing around rigged elections and shoving his political opponents out of windows into cups of polonium tea is lot of work for a guy who has to shop for gigantic conference tables all day and poop into a collection bag for his secret service guys to catalogue for whatever reason. when you combine all of that with his busy schedule of genociding Ukranians, well… obviously, one of those activities will to have to go. an evil autarch has only so much time in the day!

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think at this moment, there could be protests even with a rigged election. Take away the election entirely and maybe it's a lower chance of protests. No opposition to galvanize around, etc.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

Kind of hard to be sarcastic when thinking about that

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago

That's when they stop pretending.

[–] eran_morad 94 points 2 years ago (3 children)

republicans creaming their pants rn.

[–] Hazdaz 13 points 2 years ago

They're taking notes!

[–] Chunk 5 points 2 years ago

Fucking lmaooo

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[–] LEDZeppelin 55 points 2 years ago (3 children)

It would be a “technical violation” of constitution, which apparently is not a crime.

\s

[–] dan1101 26 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Special election operation

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

These people loves rules and laws, except of course if it applies to them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

I think I understood that this was a reference to that other, very free country (the freeestest of all), where that previous president did...things.

[–] Burn_The_Right 43 points 2 years ago

He has achieved conservatism's natural final form of "leadership".

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I think at this point he knows that he can do fuck all without any Russian uprising.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

IMO we're more likely to see Russia break into a pile of separate republics than a big unified uprising. Maybe that pile of republics gets unified by a new dictator or Putin, maybe not. As it is, the core Russian ethnic group is shrinking while several of the other ethnicities are growing within their respective regions.

Eventually the Russians won't have enough young men to conscript and continue maintaining control of their already massive territory, which will lead to existing regional governments declaring independence while Russia proper will be able to do fuck all about it unless they wanna start nuking their neighbors.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Russia break into a pile of separate republic is practically impossible, as it will cause colossal pain for literally all states. It is much easier to negotiate with one dictator with a nuclear button than with twenty.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Look, I'm not arguing what I think makes sense for people to do, I'm thinking about how people in large groups tend to act, regardless of whether it's logical. Competing for power is inevitable whenever a centralized system can't maintain outright dominance.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Russian President Vladimir Putin can choose not to hold presidential elections next year because he will “obviously” win re-election, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said late Sunday.

I agree, why even bother?

If the russian population is eating the bullshit thrown before them, why hold elections... Save yourself the hassle and stop pretend to be a democracy.

And yeah, I imagine the TRUMP-MAGA-GOP is cumming right in their pants without even touching when Putin actually just calls of the elections.

[–] PurpleTentacle 33 points 2 years ago

“Our presidential election is not really democracy [...]"

Well, duh!

[–] xantoxis 23 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Putin is widely expected to declare his bid for a sixth overall presidential term.

Oh, his "bid"? Is he gonna roll those dice one more time? See if he breaks lucky?

[–] cpo 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

A "bid" would entail something like "chance". And that chance would not depend on the citizens, but on his cronies...

[–] lorkano 3 points 2 years ago

100% chance is still a chance

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 years ago

At least he should pretend to get the 101% of the votes

Too lazy

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 years ago (3 children)

So, what happened with not serving more than 2 consecutive terms in Russia? Was it already removed?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 years ago

yeah when he became president again 6 years ago.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

guess he doesn't want to be prime minister again

[–] dangblingus 16 points 2 years ago

Well, in 2020 he did make it law that he was dictator for life. So, what's the point of going through the motions anymore?

[–] Hazdaz 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Don't feel bad for the Russian people.

They deserve this shit for putting up with this year after year as they could clearly see him grabbing more and more power. If they revolted against him 10 or even 15 years ago when he had a fraction of the power that he does now, it never would have gotten so bad and this pointless war in Ukraine might have never happened.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago

That shithole is nothing but a Potemkin country.

[–] LastSprinkles 10 points 2 years ago

He's afraid Prigozhin will run.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago

Ahh, I see Russia is playing Tropico in real life

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago

all the manpower they would use to rig the elections is lying in ditches in Ukraine

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

When was the last time they actually held a real election???

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Back in '03

1803 that is.

[–] scripthook 5 points 1 year ago

We’ll when you jailed your political rival for 10 years why have one?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

I'm actually curious how open and fair elections would play out in Russia. I think he would probably still win comfortably if only for the limited amount of information a lot of Russians get. Hell, apparently even toilets are a luxury there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Republican party leadership like

https://tenor.com/IvPt.gif

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