In the Duma election campaign, Putin is in survival mode

The aggressive rhetoric and choice of candidates from the ruling party reflect Putin’s anxiety about the vote.

The Kremlin is putting Ukraine on the agenda of the parliamentary election campaign in Russia and this is not a good sign. References to Ukraine which Russian President Vladimir Putin made during his question-and-answer session broadcasted live on June 30 produced some of the most newsworthy lines from an otherwise tiresome show. One was related to the recent incursion by a British warship into the 12-nautical-mile territorial zone around Crimea, a peninsula which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Like most countries in the world, the United Kingdom did not recognise that takeover, so it sent a vessel into Crimean waters to reaffirm Ukraine’s sovereignty over the peninsula. Russia responded with warning shots fired from a small coastal guard boat at a safe distance.