How Putin used doublethink to manipulate the Russian election

In many ways, the recent presidential shenanigans in Russia, officially dignified with the word ‘elections’, have become a strange ritual. They’re both utterly predictable in terms of their result and, at the same time a source of anxiety for all concerned. Putin has been in power now for 25 years, and no elections under his rule have corresponded even minimally to internationally recognised standards. Their main violation has been the extensive use of public sector workers, both to run the elections and vote the way the Kremlin tells them to. Thus the electoral machine is technically always ready to provide any result required of it.

Yet this was also the first election since the start of Putin’s ‘special military operation’ which has, by modest estimates, already caused at least 70,000 casualties. For Putin, needing to spread responsibility for the war as widely as possible among the Russian people, the turnout this time was critical.