This week, Putin began his 5th term as President of Russia, the longest serving president since Stalin in the Soviet Union. With Inflation at around 7%, a HDI of 0.8 (52/191) and falling poverty rates, it seems that Putin has been able to maintain the fragile balance between both his political “career” and country, amidst hardcore sanctions.
Censorship
Putin has achieved his own electoral success primarily through political suppression and extreme censorship laws.
Putin has maintained his grip on the voting population via War Censorship Laws enacted in 2022, essentially laws to prevent “false” information about the war effort being distributed even if information is correct, to the extent where Russians are not fully aware about the War and believe the conflict is against Western Imperialism as Putin alleges, and are mostly supportive of the offensive highlighted by the Norc Poll
Russia is not a politically free country and ranks very lowly in various freedom indexes. This is demonstrated by the barring of anti-war presidential candidates, the recent death of Alexei Navalny in custody and wider social media censorship. Yet Putin remains popular, and for U18s (23% of the population), he has been the only president they have known throughout their lifetimes, it seems somewhat difficult to imagine Russia with no Putin.
Russia's Economy Under Putin
- The Russian Federation has been a part of the WTO since 2012, and its GDP since 2000 up until 2022 has increased by 756%. From $259.7 billion in 2000 to $2.24 trillion in 2022. And is currently ranked as the 11th largest economy in the world.
- Other changes include the unemployment rate. It went from 10.6% in 2000 to 3.9% in 2022.
- Since Putin came into power, the percentage of people with access to internet has rose from 2% to 90.42%.
- Paid public transportation services have gone up in value from 1.48 to 2.32 trillion Russian Rubles (2015-2022).
- 95% of adults aged 25-64 have completed upper secondary education. (Literacy rate = 99.6%).
- GNI per capita has grown around 616%, from $1780 to $12,750 (2000-2022) compared to the 113% increase seen by the US from $35,970 to $76,770 in the same period.
- According to the RAND Corporation, life expectancy among working-age males has decreased drastically coupled with falling fertility rates, not a particularly good sign for the future of the economy.
Despite sanctions on Russian trade and a weak Ruble, Russia has been able to offset effects by trading with other non-Western countries and blocs such as BRICS, Iran, Turkey and the UAE (see Edition 5) and has been to prop its economy by utilising gold.
So, from an economic perspective, Russia seems to be growing, despite sanctions. However, some Russians are still apprehensive about what’s to come in Putin’s 5th term, will his old age lead him to do something rash or will the dream of conquering Ukraine die with him.