Mohammadi News Agency News – Features – Photo
Kaushik Ahmed
MNA Feature Desk: Vladimir Putin has clinched yet another presidential election on March 18, 2018. He will be in his presidential office for the fourth term and will own it for the next six years. The victory was huge with around 77 per cent of the cast votes in his favour though the competition was not much severe for him in the absence of his main rival Alexei Navalny, who had been barred from running because of a fraud conviction.
Despite being elected with a large margin, the world leaders seemed to be very slow to congratulate Putin as it took two days for the US President Donald Trump to reach his counterpart to convey best wishes. This can only be explained through the unconventional leadership of the Russian president and his immense impact on the global politics.
Putin has been in charge of Russia for almost two decades and he has taken his country to a new height. To many around the world, he has been the greatest Russian president with farsighted approach to bring balance in the global politics. His steps and actions have been criticized as well as praised. He made it very evident that in front of global pressure he will not hesitate to take those decisions which will ensure Russia’s position as a top global power. According to many, he has driven Russia towards the position once it had before the cold war. Putin has been significant to the world — positively for its allies and negatively for those who he confronted.
The Russian presidential election of 2018 was not out of controversy as many other elections held in recent times in elsewhere. Just few days prior to the polls, Putin’s campaign management team faced a tough crisis as Britain accused Russia of poisoning former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter after they were exposed to a Soviet-designed nerve agent on British soil few days ago. Putin was accused by the Brits for being involved with that killing attempt. The situation got so intense that the UK expelled 23 Russian diplomats working on their soil. In response, Moscow also expelled 23 UK diplomats and shut down the British Council in Russia.
Analysts anticipated that, the presidential election might be influenced by the tension over Skripal murder attempt. But rather it united the citizens of Russia and could not alter the results of the votes for him as Putin’s campaign spokesman Andrei Kondrashov said that turnout above 67 per cent, was 8 to 10 percentage points higher than expected. He said it was “thanks to Britain”. In reality, there will be always substantial doubt over the real culprit behind the attack and also about the motive behind.
During the election, the voters were considerate about poverty and poor healthcare existent in Russia. But they actually supported Putin for his foreign policy. His dynamic way of influencing the foreign counterparts and ambition to bring back Russia the old glory is actually adding feather after feathers on his crown. It cannot be denied that to improve the overall Russian economy during his presidency, Putin could have been more effective but that could not create any impact to keep him out of the office due to the trust that the Russians bestow upon him as their leader.
The global politics is going through several confrontations in different regions. It is turning out to be increasingly complicated in today’s world as the decisions are getting tougher to choose your allies or enemies. Putin becoming the president of Russia for the fourth term is not going to improve that scenario much in the upcoming years as under his leadership Russia is pushing a bipolar political scenario throughout the world.
Even few years back, the USA was undoubtedly the most powerful nation of the world which enjoyed no challenge from any other nation after the cold war, in which US was the total winner successfully dismantling the then Soviet Union. US had intervened anywhere they liked, toppled the governments, fought against so-called terrorism and done many things else.
It will not be wrong to say, they have made the world a tough place to live and no other nation could have acted to minimize the damages. Their acts had influenced every life around the world except lives of the citizens of their own and allies. It became established that there was no strong counterpart of the US.
Today we will feel that the scenario is changing. Putin-led Russia for the last few years has been everywhere US has been to. Putin has constantly challenged the US. They have got engaged in Georgia in prevention of extending NATO member country at Russian border foiling a joint effort of the USA and Georgia. It was the first time after the fall of Soviet Union when Russia used its military force in an independent country.
The involvement of Russia in bringing the last US presidential election’s result in favour of Donald Trump is believed by almost everyone but denied by the US president and his administration, which is logical to save his face to the world. But even if Russia’s involvement is true, that does not prove that, with Trump as president, Russia tried to create an ally named US. Rather it could have been a way of weakening a strong opposition.
Though the world initially thought that Putin-Trump alliance will prevail, with Trump in power, Putin has challenged US at almost every area. Putin led an alliance between Russia and Iran to fight against the ISIS forces in Syria while keeping the position of Syrian president Bashar-al-Assad’s intact, a position US cannot like.
Putin seemed to convince Trump that Russia was a trustworthy partner in solving problems such as Syria despite Moscow’s support for Bashar al-Assad’s prohibited regime and its alleged involvement in chemical weapons attacks and other war crimes. Putin rather pushed for a lifting of sanctions imposed after Russia’s 2014 occupation of Crimea and still unsettled military intervention in Ukraine. Trump was sympathetic to Putin’s demand in spite of disappointment of European leaders.
Putin shares a strong relationship with the Chinese president Xi Jinping. Both Russia and China can create a lot of challenges for the USA in the near future. Donald Trump has evidently failed to influence either of these two leaders with his non-political unorthodox approach. Moreover, Putin is becoming the rescuer of the Middle Eastern countries which are the obvious target of US, a fact we can bet on observing US actions throughout the past two decades. Even King Salman of Saudi Arabia, long-term ally of US, made a visit to Russia to refrain Putin from supporting Iran but the Russian premiere seems to set on his course.
The pressure is increasing for US as Middle Eastern countries, China and North Korea are bringing in huge challenges for them politically and economically. With Putin’s support that will reach new heights. The European Union is facing its own challenges. It is not very sure if the European countries, Japan, South Korea and other important countries will back Putin or Trump in conflict over power. But looking at the current scenario, Russia seems to be enjoying an edge. It is sure that, with both Putin and Trump in office, the global politics is going to see some changes in next few years.
In the post-cold war era, the global power is unipolar and the pole was held by US very strongly. No other superpowers or booming economies could have posed any challenge to their supremacy. US had to fight own internal problems only. The other countries mostly followed their command including countries like; UK, France, Saudi Arabia etc.
This unipolar trait created a lot of conflicts around the world. Many have become the victims of US hostility irrespective of presence of logic behind those hostilities or not. But we can strongly anticipate that, the world politics is moving towards becoming bipolar again with continuous rise of Russia under the leadership of Putin. It will be interesting to see different nations tagging along with Russia in the near future and certainty lies with shifting or at least distribution of power.
Vladimir Putin is undoubtedly the most gifted leader in the international arena. With his ex-KGB background, extremely disciplined life, love for physical activities and sports — he pulled a lot of interest from the people of the world. Along with that, his deep political understanding and influential personality has made him a very popular leader.
Putin seems to be more capable to address the global issues than any of his counterpart. While Russia’s influence is growing and the US’s role seems to be waning, Putin will become increasingly influential in the next six years of his presidency. We hope this world stands at a benefitted stance due political intellect as we congratulate him on becoming Russian president again.
The writer is Associate Editor at Mohammadi News Agency (MNA)
