After Putin Election, What Comes Next for Russia?

During Russia's primary and election process, there were cries of fraud occurring throughout the country against president-elect (and former leader) Vladimir Putin. When the election occurred on March 4, 2012, there was little debate as to who would arise victorious from such a fierce political battle. When the winner was announced, nobody was surprised.

As soon as Putin was elected president, videos and articles began hitting the web about the widespread corruption that occurred in favor of Putin. Accusations such as watching the ballot box and independent voters attempting to cast multiple votes for the former president were reported in Russia. However, based on the analysis conducted by The Guardian, only one answer became quite clear. It is very hard to discover and pinpoint voter fraud in an election. There is no one model that produces the results and that even if Putin’s people did cheat, it is believed that he still would have gotten over 50% of the vote.

So what does Russia do now? The first thing Putin needs to deal with is the internal opposition present within Russia today. According to BBC, it is too early to tell whether he will continue on acting as if he didn’t know that uprisings that had occurred months before. He may be very strict and anyone who is known for demonstrating to be imprisoned. Another thing that Russia needs to do is to exert its power over other countries. Again, this could be done through careful political operations or passionate people. Finally, Russia has to figure out what to do with Syria and Iran. Both are allies to Russia and they are both important. So it is unclear what Putin will do to now that he is president again, but it can be assumed that Putin will stop at nothing in order to get his country to the foremost position on the world stage.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons