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Russian presidential election 2012
Putin's tears: Why so sad, Vlad?
Vladimir Putin's triumph in the Russian election was hardly a surprise, but his tears during his victory speech were more of a mystery. Here are the five lessons we can learn from the president's high emotions
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Luke Harding
guardian.co.uk, Monday 5 March 2012 15.20 GMT
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Vladimir Putin: we won Russian election honestly and fairly Link to this video
1 The recent unprecedented street protests have terrified him
It's hard to think of another public occasion when Putin has been quite this emotional. There were the tears, of course, but also several loud sniffs as he delivered his victory speech on a stage in Red Square. You can hear his voice cracking up; the pauses before several words betray the feelings of a man who is under severe strain.
In his address, Putin made clear that he believes nothing less than dark forces are plotting against him. In the past, he has said that the west is behind the massive street protests that have shaken Moscow and other Russian cities. "We really showed that no one can impose anything on us! No one!" he shouted. He said that the ultimate goal of the demonstrators was to "destroy Russian statehood and usurp power".
In fact, there is no evidence to support Putin's fantasy-claim that his opponents are western stooges. Rather, the demonstrators are simply fed up with Putin's corrupt system and his revelation that he had privately agreed with Dmitry Medvedev a long time ago to serve a third term in the Kremlin – regardless of whether Russian voters wanted him there or not.
The demonstrators' demands are actually modest: a re-run of December's flawed poll; the freeing of political prisoners; the sacking of Russia's discredited elections' chief. Their mood isn't revolutionary.
They merely want a genuinely plural political system and fair elections. The fact that Putin doesn't understand this shows he has lost touch with reality, the perennial problem of leaders everywhere who stay in power too long.
2 Kremlin spin-doctors have an explanation for everything
Within minutes of Vladimir blubbing in public his spokesman came up with an ingenious explanation: it was the wind. The prime minister's lachrymose performance had nothing to do with his agitated emotional state, Dmitry Peskov said, but was the result of an icy breeze whipping over the Kremlin's historic cobbles. True, it was chilly in Moscow: temperatures were well below freezing. But the explanation clearly stretches credulity, and was of the: "You know I'm lying, and I know I'm lying, but – hey! – that's the game" variety.
Russia's leadership has a long history of coming up with convoluted explanations to obscure an obvious truth. Sometimes, as with Putin's tears, this is funny. But on other occasions it is sinister. Whenever human rights activists and journalists are gunned down in Russia, Putin typically blames the Kremlin's enemies, arguing that the murders are carried out by his opponents in a deliberate attempt to smear the Kremlin. This wonderful but dark inverted logic runs through much of official thinking.
3. Putin's recent facelift has not been a success
Speculation started last year that Putin had had some – ahem – work done in preparation for his return to the presidency. Observers noticed that the bags and wrinkles under his eyes had mysteriously vanished, and that his cheekbones had become strangely smooth. Last year the liberal New Times magazine ran an article headlined: "What has happened with Putin's face?". Opposition bloggers, meanwhile, began using the mocking hashtag #botox with reference to Putin. (Medvedev, for his part, got #pathetic.)
Yesterday's closeup of Putin on stage surely confirms that the surgery rumours are true. His eyes seem to have shrunk, as if someone from the set of Harry Potter had stunned him from close range with a minor jinxing charm. But the old Putin looked much better, making one almost nostalgic for the days when the craggier-looking Putin skied down volcanoes, grappled with Arctic polar bears, and descended fearlessly to the bottom of a Siberian lake in a cramped submarine.