2008 Russian presidential election

• 1. Introduction

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  On the 2nd of March 2008, Russia held a presidential election with a result that most observers had already concluded was settled before a single vote was cast. Dmitry Medvedev, a 42-year-old lawyer who served as First Deputy Prime Minister and chairman of the gas giant Gazprom, stood as the clear front-runner, publicly endorsed by the sitting president, backed by five political parties, and drawing pre-election poll numbers as high as 82 percent. His main rivals were Gennady Zyuganov of the Communist Party and Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the Liberal Democratic Party, two figures who had run against each other in elections before.

  What made the contest strange was not who won, but what the win was designed to accomplish. Vladimir Putin, constitutionally barred from a third consecutive presidential term, had already signalled that power would not simply be handed over. Medvedev, in his first public speech after his endorsement, announced he intended to appoint Putin as prime minister. The posters that went up across the country said it plainly: "Together we will win."

  And then there was the question of whether the election was a real election at all. International monitoring groups gave sharply conflicting verdicts. One characterized the vote as "neither free nor fair." Another said it met international standards. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe refused to send observers at all.

• 2. The Succession Plan

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  Putin's announcement on the 10th of December 2007 that Medvedev was his preferred successor ended months of speculation. Political observers had expected a succession announcement since Medvedev's appointment as First Deputy Prime Minister; Sergey Ivanov and Viktor Zubkov were also floated as possible successors, but once Putin spoke, the field effectively closed.

  United Russia held its party congress on the 17th of December 2007 and formally endorsed Medvedev by secret ballot of the delegates. He registered his candidacy with the Central Election Commission on the 20th of December 2007. Under Russian law, the president could not hold another post, so Medvedev announced he would step down from Gazprom. Sources close to both men told the Vedomosti newspaper that Putin himself might take the Gazprom chairmanship.

  Four parties aligned with Putin declared Medvedev their candidate: United Russia, A Just Russia, the Agrarian Party of Russia, and Civilian Power. That coalition reflected both the breadth of Medvedev's institutional backing and how thoroughly Kremlin-aligned parties had unified behind a single name. Putin pledged publicly that he would accept the post of prime minister if Medvedev was elected. The campaign slogan captured the arrangement: "Together we will win." The International Herald Tribune later described Medvedev's election as the culmination of eight years in which Putin worked to consolidate control over the government, business, and the news media.

• 3. The Candidates

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  Gennady Zyuganov, 63 years old, had run for president in 1996 and 2000. In 1996 he came within a few percentage points of winning. Officially nominated on the 15th of December 2007 by 215 of 218 votes within the Communist Party, he was the candidate most likely to challenge Medvedev in terms of raw vote share, with pre-election polls projecting him between 6 and 15 percent.

  Vladimir Zhirinovsky, 61, of the Liberal Democratic Party, brought the longest presidential track record of any candidate in the race. He had run in 1991, 1996, and 2000, with his best finish being third place at 7.81 percent. His campaign became notable not for its electoral prospects but for a televised debate incident on the 20th of February 2008, when a representative of candidate Andrey Bogdanov accused Zhirinovsky's party of voting in favor of government initiatives while criticizing them in public. Zhirinovsky replied by calling the representative "a sick man, a schizoid" and "bastard" before punching him after the cameras cut away. On the 28th of February, Bogdanov claimed in another debate that Zhirinovsky had personally threatened his life and demanded the legal complaint be dropped.

  Andrey Bogdanov, 38 and the youngest candidate, led the Democratic Party and also held the title of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Russia. His registration attracted scrutiny: an investigation was opened over allegedly forged nomination signatures, though it was reported that even a proven violation would not have disqualified him. His presence in the race earned him a distinction he would hold until 2018, the youngest person to run for the Russian presidency.

  Boris Nemtsov of the Union of Right Forces registered on the 22nd of December 2007, only to withdraw four days later, urging his supporters to back Mikhail Kasyanov instead.

• 4. The Vote and the Results

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  Medvedev won with 71 percent of the vote, a result that tracked closely with the pre-election polling that had placed him as high as 82 percent in some surveys. Zyuganov finished second. Zhirinovsky placed third, and Bogdanov last. The breadth of Medvedev's support held across nearly every federal subject, though the margins varied considerably by region.

  The day itself was quieter than the preceding State Duma election. The GOLOS monitoring group noted that large-scale violations seen in the parliamentary vote, including campaigning next to polling stations and the intimidation of voters, were practically absent on election day. They did, however, report irregularities. Three of nine members of the Biysk Electoral Commission refused to sign the final protocols, citing what they described as widespread falsifications in their Priobsky Division. The rest of the commission approved the protocols anyway, noting that the alleged abuse had not been raised during the election itself.

  Novaya Gazeta, the Russian investigative newspaper, reported forged election protocols and cases where independent observers were barred from monitoring the process. Journalist Victor Shenderovich claimed that independent observers recorded only 3.5 percent voter turnout in certain North Caucasus regions, while the Central Election Committee reported turnouts exceeding 90 percent in those same areas. Russia's electoral commission chief Vladimir Churov offered a more restrained assessment, describing media coverage during the election as "fair but not equal."

• 5. The Monitoring Dispute

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  The sharpest disagreement about the election did not take place inside Russia but between Russia and the international body charged with watching it. The OSCE, which functions as an international election standards watchdog, refused to monitor the vote at all. The organization said Russian authorities had placed severe restrictions on the size and timing of its observer mission. Russia rejected this characterization forcefully, calling the decision "unacceptable."

  The disagreement turned on specifics. The OSCE's ODIHR arm said it needed to deploy at least 50 observers by the 15th of February, five days before Moscow's proposed start date, to monitor the campaign period effectively. Russia countered that it had invited 400 monitors, and that this offer fully met international standards. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said the ODIHR had "flatly rejected a compromise without providing any clear explanations," adding that Moscow "deeply regretted" the refusal. Kamynin accused the OSCE of political bias, noting that the organization typically sent 10-20 experts to observe election campaigns one or two weeks before polling.

  Russia accused the OSCE of attempting to politicize the dispute and said the ODIHR had shown "contempt for basic ethical norms," suggesting the organization never intended to reach an agreement in the first place.

  The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which did observe the election, characterized the result as a "reflection of the will of an electorate whose democratic potential was, unfortunately, not tapped." PACE described the vote as having more the character of a plebiscite on the previous eight years of governance, with the Russian people voting for stability and continuity. The Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation both concluded the election was free, fair, and in line with international standards.

• 6. Media, Coverage, and Reaction

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  The Economist, citing figures from the SCAN media database owned by Interfax, reported that Medvedev had been mentioned more than six times as often as his three rivals combined across a sample of 1,000 news sources. The publication noted this disparity could partly reflect Medvedev's high-profile role as chairman of Gazprom, a state-owned gas monopoly with extensive public visibility, rather than deliberate editorial suppression.

  Official monitoring groups were split on what that imbalance meant. PACE observed that not all candidates had equal media coverage and that Kremlin opposition was treated unfairly. Russia's own election commission chief described coverage as fair but unequal, a distinction he did not elaborate on at length.

  Political analyst Sergei Markov, who was also a United Russia member, said the outcome had been predetermined by the level of public support for Putin's policies. He argued that Russians had seen those policies succeed and wanted them to continue. Markov also cited fears that Western interference, of the kind he said occurred in Ukraine and Georgia, would distort the result.

  Russia Today reported that much of the Western media characterized the election as a farce, while noting that international monitoring organizations present at the vote did not broadly substantiate claims of rigging. The sharply divided verdicts from observers, some finding the election legitimate and others finding it deeply flawed, left no agreed-upon account of whether the Russian electorate had genuinely expressed its will or ratified a result that the political system had already determined.