Good evening I'm on the Navas and I'm Jeff Bennett on the news hour tonight.

Russia's Vladimir Putin extends his presidency after securing a preordained fifth is trail and why federal housing assistance is shrinking at the same time

rental prices and homelessness are at historic highs. It's essentially a lottery.

Those who are very lucky will get assistance everyone else gets nothing Welcome to the News Hour. We begin tonight with two major stories, one related to the 2024 presidential election.

The other focused on an election held just this past weekend in Russia.

Today in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin declared his intention to advance deeper into Ukraine and

issued new threats against the West one day after he secured his fifth term in

office. It was an election with no suspense, the outcome of which was preordained here now is Nick Shifran

In Moscow tonight a celebration and coronation

Tens of thousands in Red Square mark the 10th anniversary of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and the man who many call a czar. Last night, Vladimir Putin declared victory with supporters, some who weren't alive when he was

appointed president in 1999.

He will soon surpass Joseph Stalin to become the longest

running Russian leader since Catherine the Great. People came to create the

conditions for internal political consolidation to move forward for development and the strengthening of their fatherland Russia.

Putin's nearly 88% of the vote and record 77% turnout made this a

Potemkin plebiscite especially since at least one city offered voters a

chance to win expensive Western electronics and another offered motorcycles and even apartments.

And Putin has launched the harshest crackdown on dissent since the Soviet Union.

Putin critics say the country has moved from authoritarian to a dictatorship.

But some Russian voters, especially those old enough to remember the chaos of the 1990s,

say Putin symbolizes a successful effort to make Russia great again.

I am interested in what is being done now, and I would like it to be continued and even improved,

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