26.03.2018, Moscow.
Essence of Time movement leader and political scientist Sergey Kurginyan commented Vladimir Putin’s address to the nation on March 23 to the Rossa Primavera News Agency,
“Putin is very impressed and, probably, even astonished by the level of support he has received. Of course, he was confident of his victory. But what surprised him was that his victory was even more convincing than all the previous ones. Putin openly says that the scale and unprecedented level of support led him make his address, and that he addresses the people because he experiences an intrinsic necessity to do so. Taking into account Putin’s loathing for pompousness and pathos, his words about an intrinsic necessity should be viewed as real astonishment about what happened.
Putin understands that this consolidation in the current situation is the only chance to remain standing. He understands, what “to not remain standing” means. And he understands the price he will pay personally in the event of such a negative outcome.
Putin is clearly surprised with such a high level of support in the setting of a falling standard of living he mentioned in his address. Being a patriotic pragmatist, Putin, in principle, sees the situation as the better the standard of living, the higher the support.
However, Putin’s unprecedented support is not born out of hopes for a rising standard of living, but out the clouds that are obviously on the global horizon and out of the West putting unprecedented pressure on Russia and Putin. I believe that this support does not have anything to do with positive results from the previous years and hopes for a breakthrough in the future, in other words, from an increase in well-being. We are talking about an absolutely different kind of support.
Putin speaks of his colossal responsibility before Russian citizens and the country. This reference to the colossal also indicates Putin’s astonishment with the election results.
Later, Putin says that there can be no hope for fast changes based on the principle ‘as if by magic’, and that patient and persevering work is needed without attempts to put on a show. Putin’s words clearly show that he really considers the election as an election of hope, which I do not consider to be the case.
Putin brings up consolidation multiple times. He calls on those who voted for other candidates instead of him to consolidate. He also speaks of national goals. At the same time, he connects ‘the destiny of Russia’ with ‘its well-being’. But those, who voted for Putin as for the country’s destiny, did not vote for their well-being, as strange as it may seem to the pragmatist. And those voting for well-being will hardly consolidate under the slogans of destiny, because well-being and destiny are very different things. They hardly ever go hand in hand.
I think, that the wave of support for Putin will have a very serious psychological, and consequently, political influence on him. And that this address shows the budding seeds of this influence.”
On March 23, after the Central Electoral Commission acknowledged the Russian presidential election to be valid, Vladimir Putin addressed the nation.
In his address, the President thanked the citizens for their support. He called the results of election unprecedented in the history of the country. The level of trust, showed by voters, from Putin’s point of view, not only acknowledges the actions by the head of the state, but also demonstrates the people’s readiness for a breakthrough, about which the President spoke in his address to the Federal Assembly. At the same time, Putin stressed that changes in the country are not achieveable overnight. The country requires changes in domestic policy. These changes must be strategically well-thought out, and they must correspond to national interests.
On March 18th, 76.69 percent of voters, which is over 56 million people, voted for the current President of the Russian Federation. 46.6 million, 49.6 million, and 39.6 million people voted for Putin in 2012, 2004, and 2000, respectively.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
