Putin By The Numbers (How To Count Russians)

Maybe Putin has a point.  He doesn't really need the Russian people in order to rule Russia.

  

 The results of the just concluded parliamentary elections might serve as a kind of proxy for what Putin really needs.  Voter turnout was about 48%, a dramatic fall from previous elections, and Putin’s party, United Russia, garnered about 54% of the vote, or 26% of the electorate.  Despite the low numbers, United Russia ended up with a supermajority of 76% of the seats in parliament.  There was hardly a whiff of discontent from the people.

In fact, with the economy failing and the rate of poverty rising, the people might just get in the way.  To run the economy, Putin relies on a handful of comrades in key strategic business positions, all of whom have prospered and are counted among the oligarch class, which numbers around 600.  To take Crimea from Ukraine required only about 10,000 active troops, since there was no resistence, and to maintain eastern Ukraine in a state of near war, Putin has around 40,000 troops stationed on the border (while up to 10,000 are believed to be in eastern Ukraine itself).  As tools of policy, not all Russians are equal, so here’s a simple graphic to keep size in perspective when thinking about what is important to Putin in his relationship with the Russian people.