This year Putin faces election, Ukraine war stalemate and an egg crisis
The president will celebrate Russia’s Christmas with wins on the battlefield and on the economy, but behind the scenes there is little festive cheer
January 7 is the Russian Orthodox Christmas, and Vladimir Putin will typically spend it in his customary seclusion after mass. While he enters the year on an apparent high, his political in-tray is piled high with intractable problems with one common theme: time is not on his side.
Putin is up for re-election in March and what would consume any democratic politician seems a trivial annoyance for him. Indeed last year, Dmitry Peskov, his press spokesman, said Russia “theoretically” didn’t need elections because “it’s obvious that Putin will be re-elected”. It is indeed obvious, because the Kremlin has excluded genuine opposition figures from the ballot (the communist contender has already pledged not to criticise Putin), controls and weaponises the media, and will ultimately rig the
