To the
West he is public enemy number one: snatching land from his neighbours,
interfering in foreign elections and unveiling weapons that he says
render Washington’s missile defence systems obsolete.
But despite —
or because of — his reputation abroad, Vladimir Putin is still widely
popular in Russia and is all but guaranteed to win a presidential
election this week with a landslide.
In part this is because over
almost two decades in power he has cracked down on dissent and
consolidated Kremlin control over the media.
The president’s most vocal opponent is also barred from appearing on the ballot on March 18 owing to a criminal conviction.
For
millions of Russians, however, Putin is the man who brought stability
after the political and economic chaos of the 1990s, as well as
restoring Moscow’s standing on the world stage following the humiliating
collapse of the Soviet Union.
“Putin is a mirror and everyone can see in him what they want,” independent political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP.
“For
some he is the man who got Russia back off its knees, got the army and
defence back on track. For others he raised the quality of life and made
sure pensions were paid on time,” he said.
For those abroad, Putin —
who in recent years has been variously portrayed as an octopus, The
Terminator, Hitler and Batman’s nemesis The Joker on the cover of
Western news magazines — means something else entirely.
“But being
the West’s main enemy is an acknowledgement that he is the number one
politician. If they’re scared of you, it means they respect you,” said
Kalachev.
The US and Europe hit Russia with sanctions in 2014 over
the annexation of Crimea and Moscow’s backing of rebels in Ukraine’s
east.
Since then Russia’s support of the Syrian regime in a bloody
civil war, allegations that Moscow interfered in US presidential
elections and the discovery of a state-sponsored Olympic doping
programme have further hurt the country’s reputation abroad.
Putin
often frames negative foreign coverage of his leadership as a sign that
Russia is under attack from a West uncomfortable with the country’s new
global role.
As he unveiled what he called “invincible” new weapons
in his state of the nation address this month, he reminded the audience
of the time in the early 2000s when “no one listened to us”.
“Listen to us now,” he said before playing video montages that displayed the weapons’ capabilities.
The
Russian moderator of a televised discussion last year jokingly told
Putin he was the “pole of evil” around which Western powers “consolidate
and mobilise”.
“Can you imagine how they would manage without you?” the moderator asked an appreciative president.
While
support for Putin in Russia has dipped slightly in recent months,
according to official polls, around 70% of those who are planning to
vote say they will back the current president.
His closest competitor, Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin, is projected to garner less than 8% of the vote.
“(Putin)
expertly exploits all the fears and the complexes of the population,”
Kalachev said, adding that the greatest fear was a return to the
instability of the 1990s.
“People are afraid of losing what they
already have...and this fear is especially strong in the provinces,
where it is hard, but still possible, to live,” he said.
Despite
Putin’s campaign promises when he returned to the Kremlin in 2012 after
four years as prime minister, his last term was marked by recession and a
fall in living standards.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has
called for a boycott of the polls since he was barred from standing,
rejects the idea that Putin retains real support in the provinces.
“They
say there: well alright, Putin, there’s nobody apart from Putin, I’ll
vote for him! That’s the only reason why he gets any votes,” Navalny
told AFP in a recent interview.
At a recent campaign rally in Moscow, supporters of the president expressed a similar sentiment.
“I
do not see another candidate who could be our commander in chief,”
Oscar-winning director Nikita Mikhalkov told the 100,000-strong crowd.”
He’s the only one. Putin is our president.”
Vladimir Putin