Putin wins the elections with a record 87% consensus. But a rift in society remains

Moscow - The plane has already begun its descent on Domodedovo when the captain announces that the Moscow airport is one of three in the capital that have been temporarily closed. It is midday on the dot. We will have to wait for indications. There are security problems.
In the night between Saturday and Sunday, leaving its own mark on the last day of the presidential elections, Ukraine intensified its drone launches over Russian territory. One was shot down by anti-aircraft fire right in the Domodedovo region.

The passengers sigh, but as soon as the alarm goes off and the plane begins its descent to Moscow, they seem to move on quickly: even if the 'special military operation' has crept back into their lives perhaps only for a moment. And life seems to run on different parallel tracks: that of those who appear indifferent, or at least try to surround themselves with normality; that of those who feel in line with the regime, and that of those who instead recognise themselves less and less in the Russia that on Sunday evening proclaimed Vladimir Putin the winner of the vote. With a percentage even higher than the most optimistic forecasts: the president had to surpass his own record of 2018, at 76.69%. He was re-elected president of the Russian Federation for another 6 years with 87% of the vote, when the count reached 99% of the sections. The figures are reported by the official Russian news agency Ria Novosti, citing the electoral commission.

The other candidates - the communist representative Nikolai Kharitonov, the ultranationalist Leonid Slutsky, the moderate Vladislav Davankov - were left with crumbs, smaller still than the 5/6% assumed: in the preliminary results they hover around 3%, without even showing too much displeasure. The turnout - again higher than the 2018 record, as expected - rose to 74.7%.

It is the result Putin has been chasing to begin this fifth term, which will allow him to break a record by surpassing Stalin's 25 years in power: the president intended to mortgage the next six years with absolute consensus, so that no one can question his upcoming choices in Ukraine and at home.

The operation, in reality, has not succeeded, figures aside. Three moments in recent months have highlighted the existence of a very clear fracture in society; the search for an alternative by a minority that may become increasingly complicated to reduce to silence. In January, support for the candidacy of Boris Nadezhdin, a semi-unknown politician who is convinced that the war in Ukraine is a mistake. On 1 March, the funeral of Aleksej Navalny. On Sunday 17 March the 'Noon against Putin' initiative, an invitation to anyone who disagrees with the regime's line to go and vote at that time.