Putin visits Crimea ahead of Russia's presidential election

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday thanked residents of Crimea for voting to annex the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, calling the move "real democracy" in a speech days ahead of Sunday's presidential election.

"With your decision you restored historical justice," he told the crowd of supporters in the city of Sevastopol, home to the Black Sea Fleet's base.

"With your decision, you showed the whole world what is real, rather than sham democracy, you came to the referendum and made a decision, you voted for your future and future of your children," Putin said.

In a rallying call, he said there were still things to improve in Crimea but "we will definitely do everything, because when we are together we are a huge force that can resolve the most difficult problems."

Last campaign event 

Putin's stop at Sevastopol's main Nakhimov square is seen as his last campaign event before the country votes.

Police said about 40,000 people attended Putin's short speech, having first to wait for several hours listening to patriotic songs.

The annexation of Crimea in March 2014 was slammed by the international community and led to sanctions against Moscow but is celebrated by most Russians and resulted in a major boost of Putin's popularity at the time.

After Putin's speech, the US State Department reacted with a statement entitled starkly: "Crimea is Ukraine."

"In his campaign rally in Crimea today, President Putin reiterated Russia's false claims to Ukrainian territory in another open admission that the Russian government disdains the international order and disrespects the territorial integrity of sovereign nations," spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

'Putin's bridge' in Crimea

Putin's visit to Crimea also included a stop at the construction site of a massive bridge which some Russians have dubbed “Putin’s bridge,” is designed to integrate Crimea with Russia’s transport network, and show off Moscow’s largesse.

The bridge will be the longest dual-purpose span in Europe when completed. It is seen as vital by the Kremlin to integrate Crimea into Russia, both symbolically and as an economic lifeline for the region.

“The uniqueness of the bridge lies in the fact that everything here is Russian,” said, Arkady Rotenberg, the US- and EU-sanctioned billionaire whose company Stroygazmontazh is building the bridge.

Longest-serving ruler since Stalin

Russian authorities scheduled the election for March 18 to mark exactly four years since Putin signed a treaty with representatives from Crimea to make it a part of Russia.

Ahead of the vote, authorities are presenting the annexation as a major legacy of Putin's current term.

Opinion polls show Putin is far ahead of his rivals in the run-up to the presidential election. His electoral victory will put the Russian leader on track to become the nation's longest-serving ruler since Josef Stalin.

But despite broad support for the president, public apathy still presents a major problem for the Kremlin. 

Putin's rivals

The most vocal Putin critic, 41-year-old opposition leader Alexei Navalny, could have injected some real competition in the race, but he was barred from running by a criminal conviction widely seen as political punishment. He has called for a boycotting of the vote.

Other challengers helped create a semblance of competition, reaching out to those who resent Putin.

One is Pavel Grudinin, a 57-year-old millionaire director of a strawberry farm. Nominated by the Communist Party, Grudinin sports a Stalin-like moustache and promises more social privileges, catering to Communist supporters who still represent a sizeable chunk of the electorate. 

A quick rise in Grudinin's popularity worried the Kremlin, and in an apparent attempt to cut him down to size, state TV and other media ran exposes about his Swiss bank accounts to dull his populist image.

Another highly visible challenger is Ksenia Sobchak, a 36-year-old TV personality who is the daughter of Putin's former patron. 

Witty and sharp-tongued, Sobchak cast herself as a champion of liberal freedoms, seeking to win over some of Navalny's supporters and others who are disenchanted with Putin.

Sobchak has denied colluding with the Kremlin, but many say her candidacy helps Putin add a democratic veneer to the campaign.

She has gone to great lengths to prove that she's not a Kremlin project, criticising Putin's policies, including the annexation of Crimea. 

She even filed a lawsuit to remove Putin from the race, arguing that he doesn't have the right under the constitution to seek a fourth term. Russia's highest court quickly shot it down.

While Sobchak and Grudinin used strong rhetoric, Putin sought to mobilise his base with promises of economic recovery and social benefits. He pledged to increase wages, invest more money in health care and education, repair roads and build new infrastructure.