Western Criticism Bolsters Putin at Home
December 13 2017 - 05:59AM
Dow Jones News
By Nathan Hodge
MOSCOW -- For Russian President Vladimir Putin, being cast in
the West as a global supervillain is proving a boon for his image
at home.
The day before Mr. Putin announced a re-election bid last week,
the International Olympic Committee banned Russia's athletes from
competing under their own flag in the 2018 Winter Olympics, citing
evidence of a state-organized doping campaign extending all the way
to the top echelons of government. The president's loyal oligarchs,
already hampered by international sanctions imposed after Mr.
Putin's 2014 moves to annex the Crimea and help ethnic Russians
gain control of parts of Ukraine, have been further stymied by a
new round of U.S. sanctions imposed in August. Those measures were
meant to punish Russia for its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S.
election, which U.S. intelligence agencies have blamed directly on
the Kremlin leader.
Far from harming Mr. Putin, such negative headlines merely
create narratives that enhance his stature, Russian political
observers say.
"They are simply a gift to Putin," said Andranik Migranyan, a
professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
"It creates the impression for the most of the population that
Russia is like a besieged fortress, and we need to rally around the
leader."
That is an image Mr. Putin is likely to play up as he takes the
stage Thursday for his annual press conference, particularly since
he can't point to much in the way of economic success for Russia.
The traditional end-of-the-year televised marathon of questions and
answers gains special significance this year as the president seeks
to extend his 17-year stint running the country by another six
years in March elections.
Mr. Putin has acquired an aura of competence and power in part
thanks to Russia's swaggering return to the world stage in recent
years. On Monday, during a trip to the Middle East, he declared
Russia's military intervention on the side of Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad a success; the next day Russian state television
broadcast images of Russian troops returning home. The Russian
president, who previously got the cold shoulder from other world
leaders over the annexation of Crimea, is once again a fixture at
international summits. At last month's Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation conference in Vietnam, he had several conversations
with U.S. President Donald Trump, who said he found Mr. Putin "very
insulted" by the allegations of electoral meddling.
But Russian observers say those allegations have helped create
an impression among Russian citizens that their president is a
political mastermind, a factor they say has raised Mr. Putin's
presidential stature much as his assertive foreign policy has.
After the U.S. intelligence community concluded in January that
Mr. Putin ordered a campaign to influence the outcome of last
year's U.S. election, the Kremlin denied any such interference. But
viewed from Moscow, the mere suspicion that Mr. Putin and his
alleged legion of hackers managed to throw a U.S. election feeds
perfectly into the president's narrative of state power, figures in
Russia's embattled liberal opposition say.
"This is one of the trumps of the Kremlin to make them look all
powerful, all important," said Vitali Shkliarov, a Belarusian
political adviser. "Secondly, they have this picture of an enemy,
and this helps unite people behind Putin."
That foreign foil is proving especially important for Mr.
Putin's campaign. The Kremlin leader is widely expected to win a
fourth term as president in March, but the domestic outlook isn't
positive.
Russia is emerging only haltingly from a recession brought on by
Western sanctions and a slump in global oil prices. Ordinary
Russians have seen the value of the ruble drop by half against the
dollar since 2014. And the country is confronting forecasts of
long-term population decline.
Mr. Putin isn't entirely immune to those negatives. In a recent
survey by the respected pollster Levada-Center, 55% of respondents
said they held the president "fully responsible" for the problems
Russia faces, up from 43% in January 2016.
So Thursday's message, analysts say, will be simple: Mr. Putin
will show himself as the man in charge of a country under attack.
Mr. Shkliarov said Mr. Putin is formidably well prepared for his
annual televised Q&A, and knows how to dominate the format.
"He knows this is the highest rating on TV," he said. "He can
play a really good game, his game."
Being accused, and even feared, in the West hardly hurts
him.
"External pressure strengthens Putin's position within the
Russian elite; the same thing with the population," said Evgeny
Minchenko, a Russian political analyst. "That sense of injury that
people have about the Russian team in the Olympics consolidates
everyone around Putin."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 13, 2017 05:44 ET (10:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.