Putin’s Sham Victory Makes Trump 2.0 All the More Frightening

Vladimir Putin extended his quarter-century reign over Russia by six more years Monday, winning a fixed election with more than 87 percent of the vote—a reflection, he said, of the public’s “support” and “trust” in him. Russians “are all one team,” the dictator said.

But the sham election, whose predetermined outcome came about a month after the prison death of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, was more a showcase of Putin’s authoritarian rule than of Russian unity. He faced no credible challenge to his power in the three-day vote, with his quasi-rivals running merely as a formality while opponents of his war of aggression in Ukraine were barred. Independent media and criticism was also repressed. And pro-democracy Russians, unable to make themselves heard with their ballots, could only register their dissent with quiet “Noon Against Putin” protests at polling stations Sunday. “We don’t have any other options,” one participant told the New York Times. “All of us decent people are hostages here.”

“We are supposed to be the ones with power here, but unfortunately in our country the person in power is a murderer,” said another, who wrote “Navalny, we’re with you” on her ballot. The late democracy crusader’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, stood in a line for hours outside the Russian embassy in Berlin as part of the protest, and wrote in her husband’s name on her ballot: Putin is a “killer,” she said. “He’s a gangster.”

Putin acknowledged his critic’s death for the first time on Sunday, calling it a “sad event” and engaging in some typical whataboutism: “We have had other instances when people died in prison,” Putin said in response to a question from NBC’s Keir Simmons. “Has nothing like that ever happened in the U.S.? It has happened, and not once.”

Of course, the implications of Putin’s victory go way beyond Russia. In his victory remarks Sunday, the Russian president threatened NATO with a “full-scale World War III” should the West take more direct action to impede his invasion of Ukraine—continuing the nuclear brinkmanship he’s engaged in since the beginning of his siege two years ago, and underscoring the danger his 21st-century authoritarianism he represents. “It is clear to everyone in the world that this figure, as it has already often happened in the course of history, is simply sick for power and is doing everything to rule forever,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday. “There is no legitimacy in this imitation of elections.”

“This person should be on trial in the Hague,” Zelenskyy continued. “That’s what we have to ensure.”

But Ukraine’s stand against Russia still depends on the United States, whose support has become less reliable of late: Critical aid to Ukraine has been stalled in Congress, thanks to Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has threatened to introduce a motion to vacate if Speaker Mike Johnson passes the funding. Johnson said Thursday that he will look to pass the aid soon with Democratic votes, despite the opposition within parts of his conference. Yet even if he does, America’s long-term commitment to its ally will be shrouded in uncertainty at least until November, when voters will choose between President Joe Biden—who has helped hold together an international coalition in support of Zelenskyy—and Donald Trump, a Putin apologist and aspiring authoritarian who has said he would “encourage” Russia to attack “delinquent” NATO allies. “Do whatever the hell they want,” Trump said in February.

More recently, Trump touted his “great relationship” with the Russian strongman and refused to commit to supporting Ukraine. “It is what it is,” Trump said of the war in a Sunday segment on Fox News, adding that he “largely” blames Biden for Russia’s invasion. (When interviewer Howard Kurtz countered that Putin “bears the ultimate responsibility” for the war, Trump responded: “Of course he does, but it could have been stopped very easily” if he himself were president.) As for Navalny’s death, Trump said that Putin was “perhaps, I mean possibly, I could say probably” involved. “You certainly can’t say for sure, but certainly that would look like something very bad happened, right?” he added, chuckling.