Russian President Vladimir Putin isn't going anywhere after 25 years in office. what next?

Moscow: After a three-day election that was criticized by the West and opponents of the government as being neither free nor fair, Russian President Vladimir Putin comfortably won reelection on Sunday, receiving 87% of the vote.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia and a presidential contender, has his campaign headquarters in Moscow on Sunday, where preliminary results of the election are shown on a screen.

After a questionable nationwide referendum, Russian President Vladimir Putin was able to earn a fifth term in power. Although the polls have now closed throughout the country, the result was always certain.
The three-day Russian presidential election, however, was never really about the democratic process. A decisive first-round victory will provide the incumbent with newfound legitimacy and send a strong message to the Kremlin: Putin's attack on Ukraine has the full support of his people. Putin called on Russians to vote in a show of togetherness as a nation in a speech to the people on election eve.


He remarked, "I am confident that you recognize the trying times we are going through as a nation, and the formidable obstacles we confront in practically every area." "And we still need to be united and self-assured to respond to them with dignity and successfully overcome obstacles." Putin went on, "The Russian people are one big family!" Putin reiterated that point after the votes ended. The Russian president declared that Russians "are all one team, all [the] Russian citizens that came to the polls to vote" while addressing a group of young campaign activists donning shirts bearing the slogan "Putin Russia Victory." But Putin also made a vague reference to “a lot of tasks ahead of us” following his re-election.

As part of the "Noon Against Putin" demonstration on Sunday, Russian voters gathered outside a polling place in the heart of Moscow.

Later, figures from Russia's Central Elections Commission revealed that 77% of the 114 million eligible voters in the nation had cast ballots, setting a new post-Soviet record.
Before the election, Putin had been vague about the precise responsibilities that he would have if he were to win a fifth term as president. Putin avoided discussing whether or not a cabinet shake-up would be anticipated following the election in an otherwise subdued interview with official propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin's cabinet may not survive after the election, but Putin simply responded, "We need to talk about this after the elections after the votes are counted." I think that this is now just plain wrong. However, the government is functioning generally fairly well.
Yawn thus far. However, Russia now faces a more pressing question: What comes next?
Will the deck chairs aboard the Kremlin ship of state be rearranged? And what are Putin's real responsibilities if he is re-elected?
Putin's rivals in the contest, who are all members of Russia's rubber-stamp parliament, seldom engaged in any campaigning or public gatherings. Not one got more than five per cent of the vote. Thousands of Russians supported antiwar candidates with laborious campaigns to collect signatures, but these candidates were barred from the ballot due to registration problems. Abbas Gallaymov, a former Kremlin speechwriter who is now an exiled regime critic, claims that "the Kremlin couldn't afford to have these candidates in the race." He continues, "The election would have turned into a referendum on the issue of war and peace," pointing out that Putin would have lost that referendum. Vote rigging was also a major worry, especially in light of the election's unusual three-day timetable, increased use of electronic voting, and the fact that Some conjecture among observers of Russia has focused on a few broad concerns. To begin with, does Putin have carte blanche to carry out his war in Ukraine as he pleases if the presidential election is, as many claim, a referendum on Russia's involvement in that country?
There were also tributes to "our real president" at the Moscow suburb near Navalny's tomb.
Larger groups, some numbering in the thousands, gathered in front of Russian embassies around the world in the meantime, serving as a reminder of the hundreds of thousands of Russians who left their nation after Putin invaded Ukraine.

At a gathering of Navalny supporters on Sunday during Russia's presidential election opposite the Russian Embassy in Paris, a woman is holding a sign that reads, "Dictatorship is not our tradition."
Nevertheless, despite the force and significance of their acts, anti-Putin voters had limited influence over the actual outcome of the referendum.

REFERENCES
https://www.npr.org/
https://edition.cnn.com/
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/