There were no surprises when the election results were declared in Russia last Sunday. The Russians voted for Vladimir Putin yet again allowing him to get his fourth term as the President of the country. Putin got 76% votes in his favour and as a result, his image as a ‘strong leader’ got a further boost. 

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Putin has been the president of Russia from 2000-2008 in his first two successive terms and then again from 2012-2018 after the tenure for presidency was increased from four to six years through a constitutional amendment signed by the then Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in 2008. This means that till 2024, he will be at the helm of power in Russia, and the opposition seems to be virtually non-existent.

Putin’s rise to power has come at a time when strong, assertive and dominant political leaders are emerging victorious across nations, be it Xi Jinping in China, Narendra Modi in India or Donald Trump in the US. The strength will play to his advantage, as  Russia needs Putin’s services as a leader. 

Despite losing its status as a super power in the international system Russia is still very much a force to be reckoned with. The strength is very much due to Putin. Russia’s success in recent years as a powerful nation and regaining its ‘sphere of influence’ as one of the most dominant powers in the Eurasian region, especially in Central Asia, has very much to do with Putin’s foreign policy initiatives.

The other reason for Putin’s success is the history that has preceded him. Boris Yelstin is regarded by Russians as a ‘weak’ leader  since he came first to power as the first president of Russian federation. Yeltsin presided over the Soviet disintegration in 1991  and Russia  went through a lot of economic hardship till his resignation in 1999. 

People in Russia, fairly or unfairly, have blamed Yeltsin for this economic chaos and believe only  a strong leader will ensure that they don’t face a similar situation again. As a result, the Russian people have rallied behind Putin. The other reason Putin succeeds is because Russians believe he is the only leader that can successfully stand up against the West, especially America. Though, the Cold War has ended over 25 years ago, the ideological rift between US and Russia is still very much visible. The antagonism against each other comes to the surface from time to time, be it in US presidential elections in 2016, their positions in the Syrian civil war, the Ukrainian crisis etc.  In all these cases, US and Russia are in opposition to each other. The seeds of ideological rift between these two political systems and cultures still refuses to die. 

Some analysts also favour Putin’s landslide victory in these elections, as they believe  he provides a ‘balance of power’ to the international system. However, his victory has not been liked by many NATO countries and the US, who has accused Russia of ‘spying’. Then, the recent diplomatic stand-off between UK and Russia, where both countries expelled each other’s diplomats, shows that Putin still has challenges to overcome.  

For India, Putin’s victory means the maintenance of the ‘status-quo’ in India-Russia relations. In the recent past, there seems to have been a ‘drift’ in relations between these two old allies, especially after India joined the QUAD — Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. This grouping of four like-minded democracies, namely the US, Japan, India and Australia, has been seen as a counter force to China and its allies.

After QUAD, Russia has noticeably increased its proximity to China and Pakistan. Last year in December, when India hosted the foreign ministers of both Russia and China for the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral, the fault lines in India’s equations with Russia were apparent to observers. India was especially attempting to restore its equations with Russia especially as the RIC-trilateral meet was happening just a month after India joined QUAD.

The boost in relations between Moscow and Islamabad is a growing cause for concern for New Delhi. India needs to look towards playing a balancing act between Russia and the West and the cooling of relations will be a sharp test for Indian diplomacy. This is especially because Russia’s relations with the West is at an all time low post the Cold War, and views New Delhi’s initiatives with suspicion. India should not let things get to a position where it has to choose between Russia and the West.

There is no doubt that like Xi, one will see a more assertive Putin after the elections and an even more assertive Russia for the forthcoming future. India will have to tread cautiously to ensure that New Delhi’s age old ties with Moscow remains intact.  

The author is a junior research fellow at School of International Studies, JNU. Views are personal