Why Would Anyone Vote For Putin? — Why So Many in Russia Prefer Putin

As you might have heard by now, Russia is in the middle of its three-day elections held across the country’s 11 time zones starting on Friday.

Of course, Russia hasn’t had a free election for years now and as a result the results are already crystal clear. The ruling dictator, Vladimir Putin, does not have any significant opposition in the country and whatever opposition remains is most likely planted by the regime to create the facade of democracy.

As I have written in my latest article titled, “The Real Russian Election — How Millions of Russians Voted With Their Feet & Left Russia,” the better way to see how Russians feel is to look at dissidence. Of course, that doesn’t mean that Putin does not have majority support in Russia. He likely still has majority support. But without a free media and political opposition, we can’t blame Russian people in the same way we can blame properly functioning democracies for electing demagogues.

In this post, in contrast to my last post, I want to look at just how crucial a free media is in societies. Without them, we move past demagoguery to the type of autocracy we see in Putin’s Russia.

Let me explain.

Photo by Pinho . on Unsplash

For many centuries in Russia, propaganda played a pivotal role in Russian state…