Unsurprisingly, Vladimir Putin was re-elected as head of Russia for six years with more than 87% of the vote on Sunday March 17.
After the announcement of the results, the man who has been in power for a quarter of a century took the floor with a long televised speech delivered in his campaign headquarters.
Le Figaro
returns to the important points to remember from this speech.
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Putin will not be “intimidated”
This vote marks Vladimir Putin's best results in an election, while any form of opposition has been ruled out.
The head of the Russian Electoral Commission Ella Pamfilova thus praised on Monday her
“record”
score , re-elected without opposition with a score of 87.29% of the votes, after counting 99.75% of the ballots.
According to Ella Pamfilova, precisely 75,000,948,438 voters voted for the current Russian president.
“It’s a record indicator (...) Nearly 76 million
,” she underlined during a press conference.
The 71-year-old Russian leader therefore welcomed this result:
“No one has ever managed to do something similar in history.”
With these figures, Putin intends to reaffirm his legitimacy and his power:
“It doesn't matter who wants to intimidate us or to what extent, it doesn't matter who wants to crush us or to what extent, our will or our conscience.
(...) It didn’t work today and won’t work in the future.”
Navalny's death, a “sad event”
This desire by Putin to reassert his authority comes after the death of his main opponent Alexeï Navalny on February 16.
Rarely, the Russian president also mentioned Navalny's name during his speech, describing his death as a
“sad event”
.
“But we have had other cases where people in prison have died
,” he added.
Vladimir Putin also claimed to have been in favor of an exchange of prisoners with the West, including Alexeï Navalny, before his death in prison in unclear conditions.
According to Putin, when the idea of exchanging Navalny for
“some people who are in penal institutions in Western countries”
was raised, he
“agreed”
.
“There was only one condition: that we exchange him so that he does not come back
,” he said in his televised speech.
Also read: Was Alexeï Navalny about to be exchanged?
“No effect” of the opposition on the ballot
Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaïa, as well as former friends and opposition allies close to the activist had called on their supporters to come in large numbers to the polling stations on Sunday at noon.
This latest protest operation wanted by Navalny was entitled
“
Noon against Putin
”
.
For Alexeï Navalny's team, the score obtained by Vladimir Putin in the Russian presidential election has
"no link with reality"
.
But Putin said in his speech that the opposition's actions had
"no effect"
on the vote.
Before threatening criminal proceedings against those who “wasted” their ballot.
The opposition had in fact urged its supporters to cast invalid ballots, or to abstain from contesting the election: “
Vote for whoever you want, or for someone who has not already been president, or against all (by checking more than one box), damage the ballot paper by scribbling it, or do not vote at all
,” they detailed on the event website.
Overall, the mobilization of the opposition took place calmly but the NGO OVD-Info, specializing in monitoring repression, reported at least 85 arrests in Russia for various forms of electoral protest actions.
Warning from France
Vladimir Putin also had a word for France, and more specifically for Emmanuel Macron, after the French president did not rule out sending troops to Ukraine.
The Russian leader declared that
“NATO troops are present in Ukraine.
We know it.
You can hear French and English spoken on site.
And there's nothing good in that.
First for them because they are killed in large numbers
.
The Russian president added that the presence of Western troops in Ukraine could bring
"the world to the brink of World War III
," but that he did not think anyone would be
"interested in such a scenario
," Reuters reports.
Putin's tone then worsened, to denounce the attitude and political games of the French head of state:
“And if someone wants to cover the internal problems of his country with aggressive external rhetoric, it is a well-known and widely used trick.”
But for the Russian president, it is not too late for France to play a “pacifist”
role again
:
“I would like France not to play this role which only aggravates the conflict.
But instead, let her do something to find peaceful solutions.
France could play this role, but all is not yet lost.”
Thanks to his constituents
Vladimir Putin finally thanked those who went to vote and who made it possible to create the conditions for
“internal political consolidation”
, two years after the start of the assault on Ukraine and the adoption of unprecedented sanctions by the Westerners.
Read also Re-election of Putin: the West denounces a distorted vote, authoritarian regimes applaud
“I would like to thank you all, as well as all the citizens of the country, for your support and your trust
,” he told his campaign team, before promising that Russia will stand up to all its adversaries.
And continued:
“We have many concrete and important tasks to accomplish.
The election results demonstrate the confidence of the country's citizens and their hope that we will do everything planned."