The reassignment of Vladimir Putin by the Russian president on March 18 passed without special surprises. He easily won in the first round, having already gone for the fourth term. If you consider Dmitry Medvedev - then the fifth, says the correspondent of the HB Ivan Yakovina.

According to official data, Putin received about 76% of the vote with a turnout of 67%. Both indicators are record high. This gives Putin's supporters a reason to say that his popularity is higher than ever, and the people fully support his course.

Propagandistic media in Russia are now reveling in victory, believing that they have done the most important thing. However, there is a small problem. These figures have a weak relation to reality.

Of course, the propaganda will be able to convince the common people that Putin won with a record result. But in this election he needed to convince in his popularity not the electorate, but his own environment.

These people are ready to oppose Putin at the very first signs of his weakness, so he had to show his strength and unprecedented support from society. It did not turn out very well.

The chase of power behind the maximum attendance was the main leitmotif of this campaign. Russians were called to vote in advertising on television and radio, with posters, banners, tickets, packages of milk and kefir - and from every iron and carrier.

On the day of the elections, food was distributed at the polling stations, souvenirs were given, concerts were held. Inadvertent state employees and law enforcement officers were forced to come to the polls almost under escort - they were brought by whole buses and by lists.

All this was done to show: Russians believe in Putin's system. The result of some candidate is important for democracy. For an authoritarian regime, it is important how many people crawl to the king. For him they creep or against - it does not matter. The main thing is that they crawl, believe in it, its system. This is something almost religious.

And now, it turned out that, despite all the efforts, they creep somehow slightly.

On March 18, mass ballot stuffing and so-called "roundabouts" were conducted on sites throughout Russia, when the same people vote on different sites. For example, observers working on sites in Chechnya say that the turnout there was 30-40% -50%. 50% is where there were carousels. 30% - where they did not exist.

So. Officially turnout in Chechnya was 92%. The difference is two or even three times - depending on how to count.

Did it very simply. Before the end of the voting, the commission staff themselves boded into ballot boxes. As it was done, you can see the video from neighboring Dagestan.

On the site number 1284 according to the observers came 443 people. However, in the final protocol - 1581 voters. 1470 of them - for Putin. Voila! Such a result was achieved very simply - a lot of ballots were thrown in the ballot boxes.

The same happened in other places. In the traditionally passive Crimea, where everyone does not care, this time the turnout was for 90%, of which 90% for Putin. There in general, everything is simple: the results were dullly drawn, since there are no observers or opposition in the Crimea because of the status of the occupied territory.

But all the same outbursts occurred not only in exotic Caucasian or Siberian regions with the Crimea. In the Moscow region Lyubertsy there were exactly the same ballot stuffing. The only thing that distinguishes them from the Dagestani ones is a certain shyness of the participants, they tried to hide from the surveillance cameras.

Thousands of sites in a thousand ballots are millions and millions of false votes.

Another way to wind up turnout is potentially multiple voting not on your home site. Only according to official figures, so voted about five million people.

Well, the know-how of these elections is the so-called "sweep" of the voter lists. It's a simple, but very effective thing. From the lists arbitrarily remove a third of voters who usually do not go to vote. Instead of three thousand on a site there are two thousand voters. And if one thousand voted, the turnout is no longer a miserable 33%, but a decent 50%!.

Those removed from the lists, who still come to vote, say: "Oh, we have a mistake" - and bring them back. No problem.

All these methods in total and gave Putin 67% of the official appearance. According to my own estimates, however, it did not exceed 50%. There were around 47-48%.

To be honest, this is a higher variant than I expected (thought it would be 45 percent), but still - too little to declare Putin an indisputable and uncontested Russian leader. Thus, in moaning that the Russian dictator is forever, I now do not really believe.

Given the increasing pressure of the West and the rapid deterioration of the situation within Russia itself, I am confident that until the end of the new six-year term, Vladimir Putin does not sit out. Most likely, he, like Robert Mugabe, will be sent to his early retirement by his own comrades-in-arms.