Well, because I think Vladimir Putin is obsessed with the idea of legitimacy. Otherwise, he would not have gone through this sham exercise, and I think here is where the international aspect is very important. You know, Vladimir Putin clearly wants to be accepted and recognized as a fellow legitimate leader. He wants to be invited to G-8 summits, he wants to have those high-level meetings, he wants to have this red-carpet treatment. This is why, you know, for all those years before, even while violating the spirit of the law of the rule of law, Vladimir Putin has been careful about, you know, keeping the pretenses and sort of adhering to the letter.
We know that Russia hasn't had a real democratic election in a long time now. All the genuine opponents of the regime are removed, disqualified from the ballot, like Alexei Navalny was, for example, in 2018, who wanted to run against Vladimir Putin. But there was sort of an election, quote-unquote. So, up to now, Vladimir Putin has been careful to follow the letter of the law, even while violating its spirit. What's happening this week is substantively different. He chose the most unsophisticated, the most banal way that was used by our dictators all over the map, from Venezuela to Egypt to Uzbekistan to Burkina Faso in previous years and simply waving term limits, subverting constitutional term limits to stay in power beyond the end of his mandate. And I think it is very, very important that the international community, that the democratic nations of the world, what we call the free world, led by the United States, takes a very clear position that it is not accepting this power grab, that even though Vladimir Putin has now been an illegitimate de facto for a long time, he now, as of today, becomes illegitimate de jure.
That is a very important stance I think that the international community, including the United States, should be making now. And what it means for the Russian domestic context, I think, again, you know, it's been clear for a very long time that in the system — in the authoritarian system that Vladimir Putin has created — political changes in Russia will not be decided at the ballot box. They will be one day decided on the streets. It will not happen today, will not happen next week, and it will most likely not even happen next year, but it will certainly happen much sooner than 2036.
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July 02, 2020 at 07:33AM
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'Putin is obsessed with the idea of legitimacy,' opposition activist says of 'sham' referendum - The World
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