putin Has Instructed the fsb to “Protect” the Elections from russians

On February 24, putin addressed the fsb collegium with a speech that, translated from kremlinese into human language, means that the security apparatus has been given carte blanche to suppress any dissent ahead of the duma elections in September.

Formally, the speech was about internal security, counterterrorism, and the machinations of Ukrainian special services. However, the central point was that putin personally tasked the fsb with ensuring the “sovereignty” of the electoral process in the upcoming elections – a euphemism for a system in which the outcome is known before voting begins.

putin traditionally attributed the increase in “terrorist crimes” to Kyiv and its “foreign curators” – a formulation so universal that it covers any inconvenient incident on the territory of the rf. On this basis, he announced the expansion of the agency’s powers and the deepening of its coordination with the ministry of defense, the russian guard, and the ministry of internal affairs – that is, the merging of all instruments of coercion into a single fist.

Separately he mentioned cyber threats, sanctions pressure, and the misuse of state defense funds – a set of issues that eloquently speaks to the state of the country’s economy, which has been financing its own exhaustion for the fifth year in a row.

The “fortress under siege” narrative, which putin has been exploiting for two decades, has been brought to its logical conclusion in this speech: an external enemy, an internal traitor, and elections that need to be “protected” – first and foremost from the voters themselves.