How does Putin stay in power?

globalnews.ca:

Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, are eligible to cast a ballot in Russian elections, which take place over three days until March 17.But how they vote doesn’t matter. Vladimir Putin will win.‘We have a very similar situation (to the joke),” University of Professor Aurel Braun says, adding Putin will not only win but determine the vote’s percentage.“And therefore, this is a sham election.”Putin has been president since 2000, pausing between 2008 and 2012 to take the lesser prime minister role and only because the Russian constitution bans anyone from serving more than two terms in a row.Through plebiscites and reform, the former KGB agent has changed the rules.

He’s due to be elected for two more six-year terms (instead of the usual four) and hold on to power until at least 2036. By then he would have ruled longer than Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.When asked why Putin is holding an election at all, Braun said it’s because Putin “understands that he has a legitimacy crisis on his hands,” and that the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine was also part of shoring up support.Russians will have to play along, Braun said, and pretend the election is real.“If anyone disputes that, you will be eliminated physically or incarcerated or tortured,” he said.By crushing dissent at home and waging war in Ukraine, Putin is ensuring no one can challenge him, Braun told Global News.“What he’s trying to try to hammer home is basically a gangsters’ message, a mafia-like message.

And that is. ‘You are helpless and resistance is hopeless.

I have all the power.’”On the surface, the election is contested. Three men are running against Putin for the presidency: Nikolai Kharitonov, a Communist; Leonid Slutsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and