A phoney referendum shows Putin’s legitimacy is fading

ON JUNE 30TH Vladimir Putin posed in front of a 25-metre bronze statue to the Soviet soldier which he had just unveiled. Filmed from below, to give him extra height, President Putin appealed to his people to vote on a package of constitutional changes, for the sake of the motherland that millions of Russians died to defend against Hitler.

He did not mention the real reason for the vote: to let him stay in power beyond 2024, when he is obliged by the current constitution to stand down. The next day Mr Putin declared victory, after a whopping 78% of Russians were declared to have voted to approve the 200-odd changes which together mark a new phase in his reign. He hopes to move from being merely the second president of post-Soviet Russia to being its life-long supreme leader.

Mr Putin’s moment before the statue was the culmination of a week-long circus, full of parades, trickery, games and prizes. Muscovites received text messages telling them that if they turned out to vote, they could win one of 2m vouchers together worth 10bn roubles ($140m). In Siberia voters were lured with prizes ranging from a smartphone to an apartment. One flat was won by the head of a local polling station. Employers ordered staff to vote.

Mobile polling stations were set up in playgrounds and courtyards, and on lorries parked by the...