Russian Elections: Your questions answered
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 15 March 2024
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Russia’s elections have kicked off and bizarre scenes have already begun to unfold at polling stations across the country - including live pop performances, free pancakes, a bride and groom and a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Tucker Carlson.
President Putin is considered very likely to win, despite having already served four terms - the ex-KGB spy, 71, is already Russia’s longest-serving leader since Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
Valerie Hopkins, international correspondent for The New York Times and Francis Scarr, who monitors Russia for the BBC, answer all of your questions on this, the most unusual of elections.
Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko. It was made by Keiligh Baker. The producers were Arsenii Sokolov and Ivana Davidovic. The technical producer was Matt Hewitt. The series producer is Tim Walklate. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480
You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast’s Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:04.6 | Hello, it's 751 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:09.4 | Now is the time for making decisions. I will be running for the post of President of the Russian |
| 0:16.9 | Federation. |
| 0:19.9 | That was President Putin, announcing his plan to stand in this election. That was back in December. And as we record this episode, |
| 0:27.0 | millions of Russians are heading to the polls. And guess what? Who is on course to remain in power? |
| 0:33.4 | It's Vladimir Putin. Is it not Vitali? |
| 0:36.4 | It is. I think it will take an absolute miracle for him not to win. |
| 0:41.5 | There are no such things as miracles you do know that don't you? |
| 0:44.9 | Not in Russia. It's a very carefully stage managed exercise. There's very little that's left to |
| 0:49.5 | chance. Polls open today and for the first time ever they are taking place over three days |
| 0:58.8 | finishing on Sunday night however in remote parts of Russia and it occupied parts of Ukraine, people have already |
| 1:08.1 | been voting. |
| 1:09.1 | They started to vote back on the 25th of February, and it's reasonable to assume this is to increase turnout |
| 1:16.7 | because it matters to the Kremlin because it's a way of validating and legitimising Vladimir Putin's continued role. |
| 1:26.1 | And if he went to, he'll be in charge for another six years. |
| 1:30.0 | How many years has he already been in charge? Since the year 2000, really. |
| 1:34.0 | There was an interruption when somebody else was president, |
| 1:37.0 | but he didn't really matter that person. |
| 1:40.0 | Vladimir Putin was in charge. |
| 1:42.0 | And then he can be reelected again in 2030 can't he so that would be a |
| 1:46.7 | sixth term which means he could be in power until 2036 when he'll be 83. Yes, which reminds me of how things were in the |
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