By It's easy to win when you're in the race alone. Having got rid of his main opponent, Alexei Navalny, Putin allowed three other candidates to stand: Leonid Slutski, Vladislav Davankov and Nikolai Kharitonov. These men are not really opposed to the master of the Kremlin, they share the broad outlines of the President's policies, and the first of them even pledged allegiance to Putin, predicting him a great victory. A muscular opposition, then.
From then on, congratulations from Western leaders were either non-existent or tinged with cynicism. Charles Michel, President of the European Council, hailed Putin's victory even before the elections were over, pointing out the voters' lack of choice and freedom. Most of the major European media had predicted the outcome of the vote even before it was counted.
Unsurprisingly, the congratulations came from the leaders of Russia's authoritarian and "friendly" regimes: North Korea, Tajikistan, Honduras, Cuba, China and others. To be fair, however, Vladimir Putin is popular among Russian people. This is an opportunity to remind ourselves of the importance of independent, impartial information in people's decision-making and discernment.
