Russian president claims victory in elections without freedom of opinion or real alternative candidacies. Vladimir Putin is on his way to three decades in power, thus surpassing Stalin's record of 29 at the head of the USSR.

Only Putin's closest allies can celebrate the endorsement it means for his presidency. For the rest of the planet, these elections are a reaffirmation of the militaristic and threatening vocation of his regime. The leader who once rubbed shoulders with his Western counterparts now has an arrest warrant against him for war crimes in Ukraine.