The New York Times - Friday Briefing: Putin’s re-election

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story

March 15, 2024

By Amelia Nierenberg Writer, Briefings

Good morning. We’re speaking with our Moscow bureau chief about Russia’s presidential election.

Plus, Australia’s snake catchers.

The Kremlin has ensured that Vladimir Putin faces no real competition. Anatoly Maltsev/EPA, via Shutterstock

Why Russia’s election matters

Russians begin voting for president today, but there is no suspense about the result: Vladimir Putin, 71, is certain to be declared the overwhelming victor.

The election, which will take place over three days, is held as the war in Ukraine rages on and the Russian opposition tries to turn grief from Aleksei Navalny’s death into momentum to protest Putin. The three other candidates on the ballot do not pose a challenge.

Since he was first appointed in 2000, Putin has consolidated power and changed the constitution to extend his rule. If Putin lasts two more terms, until 2036, he will surpass the 29-year rule of Joseph Stalin.

“This election is a ritual,” Anton Troianovski, our Moscow bureau chief, told me. “It’s a very important ritual to the functioning of Putin’s state and system of power. But you also shouldn’t expect it to change all that much.”

Here’s more from my conversation with Anton.

What is Russia trying to accomplish with this election?

Anton: The goal is to bestow a new degree of public legitimacy on Putin for his fifth term — and, very importantly, to portray Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as having overwhelming public support.

The Kremlin has always used these elections — even though they are not free and fair — to say that Putin has all this power because all these people support him.

So we expect them to announce, when polls close on Sunday, that there was more than 60 percent turnout — and that more than 70 percent of people voted for Putin. After that, there will probably be a big Putin victory speech.

What is the mood like among Russian voters?

I don’t think anybody is biting their nails awaiting the first exit polls on Sunday night. But where you do see a lot of apprehension is around the question of what happens after the election.

Perhaps the biggest thing that Russians fear is mobilization: another military draft. There was one in September 2022, which set off this exodus of people trying to flee the country. It was the most chaotic time in the country, at large, since the war began. At this point, analysts say it doesn’t seem very likely that that is going to happen. That’s because Russia has the initiative on the battlefield.

But there’s also the issue of repression. Will there be another wave of repression? Of arrests? Of new and repressive laws that are passed after the election? That’s also a possibility.

This election is important for Putin. He needs the show of public approval for him and his war.

How has Aleksei Navalny’s death changed the election?

Navalny’s death simultaneously produced a lot of despair and a lot of hope among Russians who are opposed to Putin.

Despair, because he was sort of the one figure that people could imagine as the president of a more democratic, post-Putin Russia.

Hope, because there was this tremendous outpouring of grief after he died, including in Russia, where, by many estimates, tens of thousands of people came out to his funeral and to his gravesite in the days after his funeral.

People inside Russia knew that there were many who were opposed to the war, but you almost never saw them display that publicly. His funeral became this message: That there are still critics of Putin, critics of the war inside Russia, who are able to make their voices heard if they see the right occasion to do that.

How do Navalny’s supporters intend to protest this time?

Russia, right now, is more repressive than it has ever been in the post-Soviet period. The question is: In this environment, can the Russian opposition still use the election in some way to send a message of dissent?

One of the last things that Navalny published on his Instagram page before he died was a call for a protest at the ballot box on the last day of voting, Sunday, March 17, at noon.

The idea is: There’s no law against going to vote. In fact, the government wants you to vote. And there’s no law against showing up at any given time, either. So why doesn’t everyone who is against Putin and against the war show up at noon on March 17?

Navalny’s team hopes that we’ll see these huge lines and that will show the government how many people are against the war. But turnout is going to be hard to measure, given that Russia has tens of thousands of polling stations.

”Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah,” Senator Chuck Schumer said. Kenny Holston/The New York Times

A top senator called for new Israeli leadership

Chuck Schumer — the leader of the Senate and the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the U.S. — excoriated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for elections to replace him, five months into the war in Gaza.

Schumer’s speech in the Senate was the sharpest critique yet from a top U.S. elected official, saying the Israeli leader had become an obstacle to peace and “lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.”

In the region: President Mahmoud Abbas picked an insider to be the next prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, rejecting international calls to empower an independent leader.

Gang members this week in Port-au-Prince. Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters

Why everything changed in Haiti

Ariel Henry, Haiti’s prime minister, held on to power even as gangs terrorized the country and kidnapped civilians. But when Henry signed a deal with Kenya to bring 1,000 police officers to the streets, the gangs united. They forced him to agree to relinquish power — and are now trying to become a legitimate political force in talks brokered by foreign governments about Haiti’s future.

ADVERTISEMENT

A version of the rocket will eventually carry NASA astronauts to the moon. Eric Gay/Associated Press

What Else Is Happening

A man in Tehran celebrating Chaharshanbeh Suri, before Nowruz, which is on the first day of spring. Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

An Australian snake catcher handles a nonvenomous carpet python.  David Maurice Smith for The New York Times

Business is booming for snake catchers in Australia, because of global warming. Snakes are brumating — a sort of hibernation for reptiles — for shorter periods and staying active longer into the night, which is leading to more run-ins with humans.

Conversation Starters

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times.

The funniest novels since Catch-22

Our book critics have put together a list of 22 of the funniest novels written in English since Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” was published in 1961. That novel was funny about something American novels hadn’t been funny about before: war.

These 22 books are not knee-slappers. Instead, the authors apply the tools of satire to whole other categories of human experience, from race and gender to dating, aging, office cubicles and book publishing itself.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Sang an for The New York Times.

Cook: Nigella Lawson’s chocolate Guinness cake is a rich classic.

Watch: The final concert of Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Japanese virtuoso, is captured in an aching meditation on mortality and legacy.

Groom: Treat and prevent hangnails.

Play Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

Thanks for reading. We hope you have a great weekend! — Amelia

Email us at briefing@nytimes.com.

ADVERTISEMENT

Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Morning Briefing: Asia Pacific Edition from The New York Times. To stop receiving Morning Briefing: Asia Pacific Edition, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request.

Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app

Connect with us on:

Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices

The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018