Vladimir Putin started his Third Act of presidential term from May 2012, having won the election held in March 2012. This presidential election was unprecedented in the contemporary history of Russia, considering the magnitude and nature of protests and campaign against Putin’s candidature in Moscow, St. Petersburg and a few cities in Russia by certain sections of the society comprising opposition party leaders, political activists, educated class, writers, artists, younger generation, etc. There were several causes for their agitation and the protestors were against the authoritarian policies pursued by Putin, the growing role of ‘Siloviki’ clan and bureaucratic regime, the economic decline and persisting problems, the widening social and economic disparities and so on. Notwithstanding these protests, Putin proved his true leadership quality and determination to succeed in his objective and managed to convert adverse conditions to his favor by adopting a comprehensive strategy and using State Apparatus for mass mobilization of workers, often forcing state employees, reaching out to the people in urban and rural areas to vote in his favor and accusing protestors of using American support. Putin also brought in the ‘stability factor’ and his image as a strong leader that Russia needed, thus appealing to the mindset of a section of society in Russia. By winning the election, Putin has won half the battle, since he might face several formidable challenges in his presidency up to 2018. Some of the major challenges are: ‘trust deficit’ among the urban elite against his policies of overcentralization; fulfilling the promises he has made, including social and political reforms; constraints to mobilizing resources to ensure economic growth and modernization; reducing economic disparities; containing the huge and corrupt bureaucratic regime; challenge of reestablishing the ties with the USA for attracting and soliciting western technology, capital and so on. In essence, Putin has to revise and revert many of the policies he pursued during the last decade, work out a compromise formula with opposition parties on critical national issues, fulfill many promises that he made during election campaign and work in tandem with Medvedev, while playing the balancing act in his Third Act as president of Russia.

Vladimir Putin took over the presidency of Russia from Dmitry Medvedev on May 07, 2012, having won the presidential election held on March 4, 2012. He will rule Russia at least for six years from Kremlin till May 2018. The March presidential election assumed great importance in the contemporary history of Russia since there were unprecedented protests and campaign against Putin in Russia, particularly since December 2011, which was widely relayed and debated both in Russia and abroad.1 This was in sharp contrast to the situation when Putin contested presidential elections twice before in 2000 and 2004, when there were no protests and there was total support and hardly any opposition, considering his high popularity rating in the country among all the sections of the society.

In view of this, several questions arise. What were the reasons for protests against Putin in the March 2012 presidential election campaign? How did Putin manage to turn the adverse conditions to his advantage and win the election? What challenges might Putin face during his Act III in managing Russia’s political and economic development in the near future? An effort has been made in this paper to look into various issues concerning this important event in Russia which has both academic interest as well as policy implications.

Looking back, it is important to note that Putin passed through the worst period in his political life in this latest election battle. In fact, Russia witnessed dramatic changes from political apathy that prevailed during the last decade to political activism which became abundantly visible from the unprecedented scale of anti-Putin campaign launched by several opposition party leaders and groups subsequent to the nomination of Putin on September 24, 2011 which got further aggravated after allegations of fraud in the election for the Parliament (Duma) held in December 2011. Mention may be made of protests led by Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of Russia; Sergei Mironov of Just Russia party; Mikhail Prokhorov, independent candidate in the presidential election; Alexei Navalny, a political activist; and a few others who expressed their strong views against Putin’s contesting the election for the third term. Several thousands of Russians, young and old, men and women, participated in the anti-Putin campaign for 2-3 months since December 2011 in Moscow, St. Petersburg and several other cities in Russia. Independent TV channels in Russia showed protestors holding banners that read “We Hate Putin”, putting posters opposite Kremlin across the river Moskva, and a 50-second documentary via Internet showing Putin behind bars. All these indicated that Putin’s popularity had suffered badly, and there were strong speculations by many analysts both in Russia and in the West that he might not win in the first round of election. In fact, Putin did not imagine and expect such strong and wild protests against him since on his part there was no violation of law when his name was proposed by Dmitry Medvedev on behalf of the United Russia party to contest presidential election; and he also insisted that there were no violations in the Duma election. Hence, there is a legitimate question as to why there were protests against Putin.

International Relations Journal, Russian, President, Vladimir, Putin, Why Protests, Adverse Conditions, Challenges.