How does Putin stay in power?

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to sweep to power in another illegitimate election. How does he maintain his grip and what does it mean for Ukraine and NATO?

There’s an old Soviet joke. An aide of the General Secretary and ruler Leonid Brezhnev rushes into his office during an election. Brezhnev’s communists secured 99.8 per cent of the vote but the aide is still worried.

“We’ve been robbed!” he yells. “Someone broke into the Kremlin vault and stole next year’s election results!”

More than one hundred million people, including those in 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.