Putin says world is just "one step away from a full scale world war" in victory speech

Russian President Vladimir Putin won the presidential elections in the country with nearly 88% of the popular vote. Following his victory in an election that much of the West has condemned and called a sham, Putin spoke to reporters and had some unsettling words to share.

According to Newsweek, Putin discussed the possibility of a "full-scale Third World War." Reporters asked the Russian leader about the chance of a conflict between the West and Russia to which Putin responded, "I think that everything is possible in the modern world."

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Putin continued, "But I have already said, and it is clear to everyone, that it will be one step away from a full-scale third world war. I think hardly anyone is interested in this."

Various Western leaders have raised concerns that the Russian leader plans to provoke wars outside of Ukraine if Russia is victorious and defeats Zelensky's men. Politics professor Randall Stone told Newsweek, "If he succeeds in Ukraine, he will probably seek to challenge U.S. NATO allies, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, whose membership in NATO he has always seen as a threat to Russia. He may even seek to dominate Poland, which he describes as a historical antagonist of Russia.

In addition, the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) warns that Putin is preparing for a large-scale war with NATO in the long term. Even American president Joe Biden is worried about this, warning in December 2023 that Putin could attack NATO after Ukraine.

Randall Stone told Newsweek that Putin "thinks that military developments are moving in his favor. He hopes that Donald Trump will win the election in November and paralyze U.S. assistance to Ukraine, which would allow him to dismember Ukraine or negotiate from a position of strength."

President Vladimir Putin has ruled Russia since the turn of the century and will continue to do so until at least 2030. After three days of voting, on March 17, with only half the ballots counted, Putin was in the lead with 87.3% of the vote, according to preliminary results reported by Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC).

Upon the news of his victory, Putin addressed the nation on the evening of March 17, claiming that thanks to the election, Russia had "consolidated" national unity and that Russia had "many tasks ahead."

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According to CNN Putin said, "No matter how hard anyone tries to frighten us, whoever tries to suppress us, our will, our consciousness, no one has ever managed to have done such a thing in history, and it won't happen now and it won't happen in the future. Never."

Of course, nobody is surprised; many Russians understand that the election was rigged. As highlighted by the BBC, Putin had no credible opponents, with the majority of the opposing candidates mysteriously dying, ending up in jail or exile or disqualified from running.

However, the Kremlin tried to make Russians feel as though they had a choice regarding who would lead their country and allowed a few choice candidates a spot on the ballot. According to Reuters, voters could choose among voting for Putin or three other candidates: Nikolai Kharitonov, who represented the Communist Party; Leonid Slutsky of the nationalist LDPR; and Vladislav Davankov of the New People, a liberal, pro-business party.

Despite the other candidates' varying political standings, all three openly supported the Kremlin's policies and knew they never stood a chance against Putin.

The BBC points out that Vladimir Putin has already been in power in Russia longer than any ruler since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. And Putin has changed the rules to ensure he will remain in power, overriding the two-term limit imposed by the Russian constitution.

According to the BBC, Putin "has since changed the rules to give himself a clean slate to run again in 2024 by "switching back to zero" his previous terms." By doing so, Putin will be allowed to run for president again in 2030 at the age of 78.

Several media outlets reported that some brave Russians attempted small acts of protest. CNN highlights that Russia filed 15 criminal cases against individuals for pouring dye into ballot boxes, starting fires or throwing Molotov cocktails at polling stations.

However, most citizens were afraid to defy this shameful election, given the hefty punishments any protestors face in the Russian state. The independent human rights group OVD-Info reported that more than 60 Russians were detained for acts of protest against the election in at least 16 cities on March 17; most will be facing a minimum of five years behind bars for their actions.

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of one of Putin's biggest opponents, Alexei Navalny, called upon Russians to partake in "Noon against Putin" protests, in which citizens were called upon to flood polling stations and vote for anyone but Vladimir Putin.

Pictured: A man casts a spoiled ballot during Russia's presidential election at a polling station in Moscow.

In a statement to the media, Yulia Navalnaya said that the "Noon against Putin" campaign, rather than causing any actual change to the election results, had the objective of allowing anti-Putin Russians the chance to silently identify each other at the polling stations to know that they are not alone in their opposition.

The Russian presidential elections came just one month after Vladimir Putin's biggest critic, Alexei Navalny, mysteriously died in an artic penal colony. According to the New York Times, on March 17, in his evening address to the nation, Putin discussed Navalny's death. "As for Mr. Navalny – yes, he passed away. It is always a sad event. And there were other cases when people in prisons passed away. Didn't this happen in the United States? It did, and not once," Putin said.

Putin went on to explain that just a few days before Alexei Navalny's death, he was informed there was a possibility to exchange Navalny for Russian prisoners being held in Western countries.

Putin explained, "The person who spoke to me had not finished his sentence yet when I said I agree. But, unfortunately, what happened [Navalny's death] happened. There was only one condition that we will exchange him for him not to come back. Let him sit there. Well, such things happen. There's nothing you can do about it, that's life."

Following the release of the preliminary results of the Russian election on March 17, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to the media about how he felt about the election. According to Reuters, Zelensky called Putin a "dictator" and Russia's election a "sham."

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Zelensky said, "It is clear to everyone in the world that this individual, as has happened so often in history, is simply sick with power and is doing everything he can to rule for life. There is no evil he will not commit to prolong his personal power. And there is no one in the world who is immune to this."