A $1bn push for power

Leaked documents have revealed the vast scope and cost of the Kremlin's vote-rigging machinery. With Putin certain to win another six-year term this weekend, why do elections matter so much to the Russian president?

- Andrew Roth

When Russia goes to the polls this week, Vladimir Putin will be backed by a n operation that will have cost around $1.2bn to shape public opinion and boost turnout as he seeks a public mandate for his war in Ukraine and continued rule as Russia’s potential president-for-life.

Internal Kremlin documents leaked to the Estonian outlet Delfiand shared with other media organisations, including the Guardian, detail how the administration has pump ed money into a network of NGOs and companies to create media content such as films and Telegram channels, conduct secret polling, organise youth festivals and establish new media in the occupied territories of Ukraine, which are expected to provide hundreds of thousands more votes for Putin .

“We will no longer tolerate criticism of our democracy and claims that it is not what it should be . Our democracy is the best, and we will continue to build it,” Putin’s press secretary, Dmitri Peskov , told a youth festival in southern Russia last week. Like dozens of other efforts meant to imitate civil society, the event held by the Znanie, or Knowledge, organisation was also backed by lavish Kremlin spending .

One analyst who has consulted political campaigners in Russia described the spending, if accurate, as a free-for-all, specifically noting the surge in spending on media. The head of one media organisation funded by the Kremlin claimed there had been a 20-fold increase in state spending on internet projects since 2018 and that the group supported 40% of all original Russian platform content to achieve “what the state needs”.

Much of that is patriotic content, just one part of the eff orts at “prerigging” the elections to help ensure a broad turnout and reduce the need for cruder forms of manipulation.