United Russia may rig local elections, but it is pretty clear that they don’t need to rig the presidential elections. All polling consistently shows that Putin genuinely has a large approval rating. We don’t have to like this as communists, but we can’t deny the facts. And it’s not all due to propaganda either. We have to be honest about the reality of what Russia has experienced over the past two decades:

We can and should denounce the economic liberalism and the reactionary social policies of the current Russian government, but we also have to try and understand by looking at the material reality why most Russians support their government. That’s not to say that everything is perfect economically either, but we have to draw our criticism from reality, like the KPRF who constantly highlight the failures and the limitations of the current economic model and push for a China-style socialist economy instead.

definitely rigs elections

We(sterners) always say that our enemies rig elections(, i can’t think of a counter-example). In this case however, we have surveys from Europe or the u.s. that confirm his popularity(, e.g., 1, 2, p.3&p.6, …), so why would he cheat if he’s indeed popular ?
We(sterners) usually don’t allow foreign governments to verify the popularity of our candidates by foreign countries, in order to prevent lies, but Russia allows it for now, and i’ve yet to find surveys that don’t confirm his popularity.

Sure buddy, Putin is more popular amongst Russian population than almost any western elected leader is in their country (according to western polling organizations), but HE is the one that has to rig elections! (of course there’s media coverage friendly to Putin, oligarch support etc. but that’s just regular liberal democracy like in the west, it was never supposed to be a fair system).

And what about prosecution of “radicals”? Ever heard of Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, David McBride, UK prosecuting Palestine Action, Germany debanking journalists and activists for reporting inconvenient facts and voices…

So, do you also consider ALL the prominent western leaders to be “evil dictators”, or is that a label reserved only for “adversaries” or maybe some convenient western-aligned scape-goats like Saudi Arabia?

He’s definitely an evil dictator who persecutes radicals within his own border and definitely rigs elections.

The problem with this perspective is, there is nothing on the surface that distinguishes it from pro-imperialist western narratives. The “but no” part that follows makes it seem more nuanced, but also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense alongside it. He’s an evil dictator, but doesn’t want to conquer. He persecutes radicals, but is for multi polar participation.

What characterizes someone as an “evil dictator” in the first place? Is it if they repress groups that overtly challenge state power? Because if so, that’s every leader of a state, as groups that challenge state power are always going to be considered a threat to the prevailing state project.

Another thing to think about is, what does it mean to “rig elections”? In the context of capitalist state power, we already know that the working class is not in charge, so the elections are not worth much for them anyway. For example, in the US, elections are probably not formally rigged most of the time in the sense of lying about vote counts, but they are rigged in the sense that the party machines and laws make it all but impossible for working class representation to gain traction (let alone explicitly communist reps).

The ideas some of us have (I won’t claim to speak for you, as I don’t know where you are from), especially when we come from the imperial core, tend to have this embedded narrative that “liberal democracy” is actually democratic and foreigners keep doing this “other thing” that is “not freedom.” But this narrative largely comes from western imperial broad strokes justifications for violent coup plotting. It doesn’t really go into the detail of how these other governments operate in the weeds of it. So it’s important we catch that tendency and take it apart, not keep it unchallenged along with having an anti-imperialist view.

It’s hard to call someone a dictator when he’d have won those elections whether he rigged them or not. He’s genuinely that popular with the proletariat as well as the bourgeoisie.

Not only does it seem that you were banned, but your name doesn’t even appear in the modlog, and your account isn’t even accessible ?
If the mods are responsible(, and went as far as insta-purging your account, something never seen before, contradicting this kind of recent declaration), then i.d.k. why i keep posting here.