UNDER REGISTRATION

Updated Monday, March 18, 2024-00:50

Vladimir Putin was crowned yesterday for the fifth time in an electoral farce that he turned into a kind of plebiscite to legitimize his imperialist crusade in Ukraine.

The Russian president, who has twisted the Constitution to

extend the limits of his mandate until 2030

(and probably 2036), resorted to the autocrat's manual to revalidate the position with a veneer of formal democracy, calling for empty ballot boxes to which attended without opposition after disqualifying all the candidates

data that could overshadow him and murder the only one capable of defeating him:

Alexei Navalny, dead in a Stalinist gulag-style Siberian prison

.

He only tolerated a fictitious dissidence embodied in three candidates who were mere props in the Kremlin's function, which included the vote in occupied Ukraine.

Putin thus intended to offer an image of popular support for his war plans, now that

Russia has returned to the offensive

after two years of blatant strategic failure.

A theatrical representation of the supposed closing of ranks of the Russians with their commander in chief, who is preparing for a long war and has put the economy on firm footing, dedicating

to the military budget a third of the GDP.

Yesterday's elections were intended to politically shield a war in which time plays in favor of the Kremlin, confident in the erosion of the Western allies evidenced in the recent clash between Macron and Scholz.

The French president has become a pillar of an unrestricted defense of Ukraine that deters Russia from attacking European soil

: hence their determination not to draw red lines and even put the sending of soldiers on the table.

In front of him, the German Chancellor rejects direct intervention in a war in which he even doubts the delivery of Taurus missiles to the Zelensky Government.

The collapse of European unity - which was partially restored on Friday at the Berlin summit - is only good news for Putin, who has another international factor in his favor:

the possibility of his ally Donald Trump returning to the White House.

With the internal opposition completely suffocated - which yesterday appeared in the form of brave queues to concentrate the vote at noon as a sign of protest - and the military initiative recovered, Putin is at his strongest moment in two years.

This scenario forces Europe to guarantee by all means the defense of kyiv against a Russia that has become an existential threat.

Former Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev made this clear a few days ago with an intervention in front of a Russian map that included Ukraine.

And that in the future it could absorb former Soviet republics that are now European such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Putin's defeat is, furthermore, the only possible path for a transition that allows us to build a democracy, lift sanctions and reintegrate Russia into the international community.

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