Russian President Vladimir Putin won reelection on Sunday with 63.6 percent of the vote, despite extensive opposition efforts from the Russian electorate.
This election may keep him in power until 2024, which would seal his status as the longest-serving Russian leader since Stalin.
This news may come as no surprise to America’s young conservatives, given the general knowledge that the Russian elections are fraudulent. International monitors revealed that Sunday’s vote calculation system was heavily tilted in favor of Putin.
So why should Americans care that anti-Putin Russians just lost an impossible battle?
Because every win for totalitarian government is a loss for American conservatism, even if it happens 3,000 miles away.
It allows the fight for the suppression of human rights, freedom of speech and innovation to continue through oppressive leaders who will not stop until the rest of the world accepts their ideology.
Make no mistake, it has happened already and much closer to home.
Yesterday, Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, called Putin to congratulate him on his win, saying, “This victory is the assertion of an everlasting populist Russia that has fully recovered its splendor.”
Putin’s reelection validates the quest of our neighbors in Latin America and Cuba to further the cause of their own oppressive socialism and communism.
This is not a Russian problem, it is a human problem and as a human problem it needs our attention and our outrage.
The Russian opposition has not given up. They have vowed to protest until the government allows more democracy and transparency in the political process. Already more than 500 protestors have been arrested.
To turn a blind eye to their efforts would be to ignore the fact that rigged elections, human rights violations and censorship undermine everything that conservatism stands for.
Communism is spreading, it is at our door and it needs strong opponents.
