This coming Sunday is the presidential election in Russia, and Vladimir Putin is sure he is going to win. But who is Vladimir Putin? And why is he so sure to pull a win? Despite allegations of Putin’s political party’s widespread official fraud, the latest surveys show that Putin will have the vote of approximately 60% of voters.

Putin as a Russian politician served as president of Russia from 2000 to 2008 and is currently the Prime Minister of Russia. He also has a background serving in the KGB for sixteen years. Based on a law change, Russia’s running presidential term has been increased from four to six years. The current President, Dmitry Medvedev, has decided not to run for re-election.

There is much controversy and protesting going on against Putin coming back into power as President. Putin has maintained a very strong criticism of the United States yet contradictorily has stated that, “President Barack Obama’s policies of ensuring ties with Russia,” will “successfully negotiate Russia’s access into the World Trade Organization.”

Regardless of the massive protests against Putin, he has clearly stated that he wants to help Russia regain social and economic stability.

However, Putin’s certainty in his unquestioned win is not necessarily a reflection of reality. In Moscow, thousands have been protesting against re-electing Putin. This has been the most populated show of outrage and anger since the Soviet Union collapsed, nearly twenty years ago. Despite the massive protests, he is staying confident that he will pull through and gain his victory and has clearly stated that he wants to help Russia regain social and economic stability.

If elected, Putin will be eligible to serve twelve more years as the President of Russia. Even though he has not been elected as President yet, Putin is already talking about running for re-election in 2018. If he wins both the 2012 and 2018 elections, he would have served almost a quarter of a century, which is longer than any other individual in Russia’s history other than Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

As Putin gets closer to becoming the Russian President once more, the Syrian government is crumbling. President Obama disclosed a statement that Syrian’s President, Bashar al-Assad’s “days are numbered.” Meanwhile, Obama is working hard to speed up the process of Syria becoming a dictatorship. Russia is currently blocking UN action in helping this happen.

The biggest question in the current political climate revolve around the long-term impact of Russia with a Putin-led government. Both in terms of the American-Russian relations and the repercussions of political complications on Russia’s chances of becoming a part of the WTO.

The Russian Presidential Election will take place this Sunday, March 4. Stay tuned in to see if Putin will be the President of Russia for the newly extended term of six years.

Image Courtesy of   Vasily Smirnov / Shutterstock.com

The article Will Prime Minister Putin Win Over Russia by a Landslide? appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Boris Gryzlov, a close ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, is stepping down from his post as speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, their political party said on Wednesday. However, he will keep his executive position in Putin’s United Russia party.

Gryzlov resigned after fraud allegations came out during the parliamentary elections in early December. These allegations gave way to the biggest anti-government protests seen in twenty years. Gryzlov believes he achieved a lot of what he set out to do during his eight years in the Duma. He plans to continue leading the political party’s supreme council and stated that he is, “ready to accept a post determined by the president.”

The candidate that will be Gryzlov’s replacement will be nominated next Saturday. Tens of thousands of people protested against the results of the election on Saturday that brought Putin’s United Russia party to power again. There was an estimated 25,000 protesters in Moscow, the police said, but organizers said there were 40,000.

Whether the police are correct or the organizers, either number would qualify as the largest protest in the Russian capital in two decades. The protesters believe the election results were rigged and were not afraid to protest in freezing temperatures in other Russian cities as well.

They shouted, “Putin out!” Another protest is scheduled to occur on Christmas Eve, December 24, which will be three days after the new parliament holds its first session. After a day of protests, President Dmitry Medvedev said he wanted the allegations to be investigated. The statement on his Facebook page read, “I agree neither with the slogans nor the statements voiced at the protests.

Nevertheless, I have ordered checks into all the reports from polling stations, regarding the compliance with the election laws.” Many people criticized his post on Facebook. “It’s awful,” Elena Panina wrote. “Really. He was drunk when he wrote that, or he didn’t read what he wrote. … What slogans does our president disagree with? ‘We are for fair elections?’”

Some pro-government demonstrators came out on Monday, but their numbers were not as vast as the protesters that showed during the weekend. Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian billionaire that owns the New Jersey Nets basketball team, announced on Monday that he will run for president of Russia next year.

There was some speculation as to whether he was going to run with the Kremlin’s tactic backing, to make people believe that there was a real contest for president, or whether he genuinely wants to defeat Putin.

Mark III Photonics / Shutterstock.com

The article Putin’s Ally Resigns from Russian Parliament appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.