An endless war and a harsher crackdown on dissent? What can Russia expect after Putin’s bogus ballot

As millions of Russians and residents of occupied Ukraine head to the ballots this weekend to vote in rigged presidential elections, Vladimir Putin is ready to further shift the country onto a war footing.

He has already been in power for 24 years, having ruled as prime minister but de factoleader from 2008 to 2012. After changing the constitution in 2020 to allow him to run again, he will surely rule for another six years, eventually eclipsing Joseph Stalin in 2029 as the longest-reigning ruler in Russian history.

Consolidating power and quashing dissent has characterised his nearly quarter of a century in power; a new form of much of the same is likely to define his fifth term in charge, this time centred on prolonging his war in Ukraine.

“The election means more war, no peace,” says John Foreman, a former UK defence attache to Moscow.

The perennial president speaks to a soldier while visiting a military training centre in 2022

Russia is now devoting an estimated 7.5 per cent of its GDP to military spending, the highest since the Cold War.

Some weapons factories are operating on a rotating 12-hour shift pattern to keep production running 24 hours a day, according to videos shared by the Russian defence ministry. Swathes of the non-fighting population, meanwhile, have been employed to manufacture equipment for the war effort, while engineers have been asked to revamp old Soviet-era tanks for use in Ukraine.

In the short term, this has had positive effects on Russia’s economy; the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that the country will have greater growth than all the G7 nations this year.

But it has inextricably tied Russian society to the war effort, say economists. The success of the so-called “special