No choice election
Russia’s leadership was surprised to see the list of people associated with the Kremlin that was prepared for the US Congress at the end of January because of the lack of depth and detail of the list. However, there is a dominating expectation that more sanctions will eventually follow, and the country’s leadership is preparing for this, even designating a newly nationalized bank to serve Russia’s defense industry so that when it is sanctioned by the US, other financial institutions may remain intact.
After Putin announced Russia’s victory in Syria and started a troop withdrawal, it became especially important for Moscow to retain its influence in the region without a lot of fighting in order to manifest its victory to Russians ahead of the March 18 Presidential Election. The task, however, has become extremely difficult, with multiple players testing Russia’s ability to continue to influence the situation in Syria.
With no intrigue left in the presidential election, candidates are campaigning in order to pursue other goals, most of them directed far in the future. Some candidates, including Ksenia Sobchak, have already announced that they plan to compete in the 2024 election as there is no chance to defeat Putin this year.
The print media continues to lose popularity to online media in Russia as about 75% of the population now uses the internet. Although almost half of Russians still read print versions at least few times a month, the daily readership of online media is about three times higher (16% vs 6%). For the first time, more Russians now prefer to read the same article online rather than in print.
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