Don’t think that social media memes and clever stunts will topple Putin. Only a defeat in Ukraine can do that.
  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    2•8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    And while former Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s bungled mutiny last summer sparked more hopeful predictions that, surely, it would be the start of Putin’s unraveling, it didn’t prove to be so.

    And the imitation election that saw him secure 87 percent of the vote has only served to underline the glaring fact that he’s in full suffocating, repressive control of his country — despite the small flash mobs and defiant social media memes to the contrary.

    One day we will win,” a defiant Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny, implored after she voted at the Russian embassy in Berlin, writing in her late husband’s name on the ballot paper.

    They can lift dissident morale and irritate the Kremlin, but they won’t engineer Putin’s downfall — or that of the governing system he’s shaped — which, judging by recent opinion surveys from the independent Levada pollster, has the backing of most Russians with a current approval rating of 86 percent.

    According to Ponomarev, this only boosted participation in the sham election and allowed Russian state media to broadcast footage of voters lining up at polling stations, adding to a false impression of legitimacy.

    But for such victory to be achieved, the West has to gird itself, accelerate weapons provision and military assistance, and help Ukraine weather the soon-to-come Russian offensives that will likely target Kharkiv and Odesa, as well as build up for another heave to try and push Russia out.

    The original article contains 1,302 words, the summary contains 244 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • @cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
      5•8 months ago

      he’s in full suffocating repressive control of his country

      judging by recent opinion surveys from the independent Levada pollster, has the backing of most Russians with a current approval rating of 86 percent

      Soooo…then why does he need to “suffocate” and “repress” the country if most Russians already support him?

      According to Ponomarev, this only boosted participation in the sham election

      Huh…I would have thought that high participation made an election more legitimate, not more of a sham.

      Guess i don’t really understand democracy. Glad I have Politico to tell me that democracy is actually when low election turnout and low approval ratings for the government.