Peskov called the electoral system of the Russian Federation “not quite a democracy”

Presidential elections in Russia are “not quite a democracy, but rather an “expensive bureaucracy”. The President of Russia Vladimir Putin will be re-elected next year for a new term with the result of more than 90% of the votes. Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov expressed this opinion in an interview with The New York Times newspaper.

The large material of the American edition is entitled “Putin’s Eternal War”. The authors ask to answer the question, when the war in Ukraine will end, will the Russian society get tired of it, will Vladimir Putin start looking for peace. As follows from Peskov’s words, as quoted by the New York Times, the Kremlin believes that nothing threatens Putin’s rule, including because the Kremlin itself controls the election process.

Peskov also answered a question about the prospects of ending the war in Ukraine. According to him, now there is no basis for signing a peace agreement, and the so-called special operation will continue “in the foreseeable future”. To a direct question about whether Russia wants to seize more Ukrainian territories, the representative of the Kremlin answered: “No. We simply want to control all those lands that are now recorded in our Constitution as ours.” In addition to Crimea annexed in 2014, we are talking about four oblasts, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson, which Russia announced to annex in 2022. At the same time, the Russian military does not fully control any of them now.

Peskov has not yet commented on the publication.

• According to its constitution, Russia is a democratic country, elections must be equal and secret, and the source of power is the people. Although Russian officials often criticize democracy in Western countries, officially they, including Putin, continue to speak of Russia as a democratic country where leaders are determined by elections.
• None of the candidates, including Putin, has yet received more than 90% of the votes in the presidential elections in Russia. Despite numerous evidence of violations and falsifications, such election results in Russia are still rare and are achieved by pro-power candidates only in a few regions, such as Chechnya.
• Putin has not yet officially announced his intention to run for a fifth term in 2024.