Abstract:
During the Russian State Duma elections, the Kremlin released a promotional video of President Vladimir Putin conducting online voting. However, this video, which was originally intended to showcase digital convenience, has aroused widespread attention and discussion on social platforms due to the computer hardware and system details exposed in the video.
The video shows that the 73-year-old Putin is operating an American-made Dell monitor and supporting computer at his desk. Eagle-eyed netizens and technical analysts pointed out that after the video screen was enlarged, a system watermark of "Activate Windows" appeared vaguely in the lower right corner of the screen, which meant that the computer was running a Microsoft operating system that had not been officially activated. Considering that Russia has vigorously promoted local substitution in recent years and already has operating systems such as Astra Linux with a high local share. At the same time, the official has repeatedly emphasized the independence of domestic technology. In the public voting scene of the country’s top leaders, it still uses American hardware and unactivated Microsoft systems. This phenomenon is particularly surprising.
Analysts pointed out that due to Western sanctions and technology withdrawal, Microsoft's local activation services may be restricted, or the computer is just a clean device temporarily assembled for the purpose of temporarily filming the voting process, and therefore does not undergo cumbersome system registration. In addition, Putin's posture when facing the screen in the video has also become a focus of discussion - he squints his eyes and squints at the screen, and frequently pauses for long periods of time when operating the mouse, showing that he is not very proficient in computer operations.
Putin has long maintained a public image of staying away from modern smart electronics. The Kremlin has previously confirmed that Putin still does not use smartphones and remains highly vigilant about the Internet due to network security and privacy concerns. This promotional video, which was originally intended to demonstrate the smooth experience of online voting, unexpectedly exposed the dependence of the Russian government’s office equipment on external technology and the leaders’ unfamiliarity in using modern digital tools.
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