Putin claims election victory: BBC News Review

Putin claims election win

This is News Review from BBC Learning English

where we help you understand news headlines in English.

I'm Beth. and I'm Georgie.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn the vocabulary

you need to talk about this story.

And remember to subscribe to our channel to learn more English

from the headlines. Now, today's story.

Vladimir Putin has claimed his fifth term as president

after winning 87% of the vote,

according to Russian election officials.  

No credible opposition candidate

was allowed to stand. China and India have congratulated Putin,

while Western governments called the election win unfair and undemocratic.

Thousands of Putin's critics staged a protest at polling stations

on the last day of the election.

You've been looking at the headlines. What's the vocabulary that

people need to understand

this news story in English?

We have landslide, outfox and sham.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

Let's have our first headline. This one's from Reuters.

Putin wins Russia election in landslide

with no serious competition

Now, here we're looking at the word landslide.

Putin has won the election in a landslide.

A literal landslide is when the land -

that's the ground beneath your feet, literally moves and slides,

maybe because of heavy rain or an earthquake.

But that's not what's happening here, is it?

No, we also use it in a metaphorical sense,

and it means an overwhelming success or victory. We often use it to

talk about elections where the winning candidate receives a large majority

of the vote. Like in this story,

Putin won 87% of Russia's vote,

according to Russia's election officials. Now here,

it's used as a noun,

Putin wins in a landslide,

but it can also be used as an adjective.

We can talk about a landslide victory or a landslide win.

But they are both political.

Can we use this word outside of politics?

Yes, another use is to talk about sports victories.

So you could say that a basketball team secured a landslide victory

after defeating all the other teams.

OK, let's look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This one's from the Telegraph. Putin's strolls to victory -

but his opponents humiliate and outfox him

Now, this headline is about protests against Putin.

We're looking at the verb outfox. Putin's opponents outfox him.

Now, this word has fox in it,

so that's an animal

a little bit like a dog and they're usually orange or brown in colour

and they're known for being quite clever, aren't they?

Yes, and we have this expression 'sly as a fox'

which means that someone is clever, often in a sneaky or dishonest way.

And then when we add the prefix 'out' to make it a verb

it has this sense of exceeding something,

it's bigger, greater, more than.

So, if you outfox

someone you do something cleverer or sneakier than them.

They think they're clever,

but you are cleverer.

Right, so even though

Putin has control of the media

and the election process,

this headline implies that his opponents were smarter than him,

they outfoxed him because those protests still went ahead.

Now, Georgie. Can we hear some more verbs that have that prefix 'out'.

Yes, so if a child outgrows their clothes,

they grow beyond the size of their clothes. They become too big for them.

It's a sad fact, Beth, that we often outlive our pets.

We live longer than them. We do.

OK, let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline.

This one's from the Independent. Western leaders line up to condemn

Putin's sham election.

So this headline is about Western leaders

who are calling the Russian election undemocratic. The word

we're looking at is sham. Georgie,

what do the headline writers mean by a sham election?

Well, here it's used as an adjective and it means something is fake

or not what it seems to be. Western leaders have said

that the election was neither free nor fair, which is why the word

'sham' has been used here.

They think the election is fake.

Now, another common combination is sham marriage.

This is where two people who are not in a genuine relationship get married

for other reasons

like financial gain or to gain residence in another country.

They are both as an adjective though,

sham election and sham marriage.

Are there any other uses?

Yes, we can also use it as a noun.

So Western leaders might say that Putin's election was a sham.

If a doctor claims to have a miracle cure

and he makes lots of money from it, but it turns out

not to work,

we could say that is a sham.

OK, let's look at that again.

We've had landslide:

an overwhelming victory or success. Outfox: act more cleverly than someone

and sham: fake

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