Putin rigged the Russian election but God is still in control

Democracy is a fragile thing, says Tim Farron MP. Christians must value it, engage with it and pray for change

Vladimir Putin has just won his fifth term as Russian president in an election that was about as rigged as you could imagine. None of his three cardboard opponents had any chance of winning. All other significant rivals have been ‘withdrawn’, jailed, exiled, or are dead.

Protests in Russia have been courageous but muted. People gathered outside ballot centres to demonstration their discontent - as proposed by Alexei Navalny, Putin’s outspoken rival who recently died in a Russian penal colony. But when armed guards show up on people’s doorsteps with ballot boxes, as reported in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Berdyansk, there’s not much anyone can do.

Claiming that he won over 87 percent of the vote with a 74 per cent turnout, Putin will be in power until 2030. This allows him, to some extent, to further legitimise his actions in general, and his war on Ukraine in particular.