Vladimir Putin's hold on power has been extended. Here are three ...

A lot has changed since Vladimir Putin's reign over Russia began more than two decades ago.

The 71-year-old is set for another six years in the country's top job, after winning the presidential election held from Friday to Sunday with almost 90 per cent of the vote.

While many Western observers argue it was rigged, that will hardly rattle the cage in the Kremlin, which Putin has towered over since 1999.

But with a declining population, the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and increasing international isolation, Russia's future is far from straightforward.

Here are three things to expect in Putin's next term.

The rhetoric from Moscow and Kyiv is clear: the war in Ukraine isn't ending any time soon.

But as casualties mount, some experts are predicting Russia will again begin forcibly drafting civilians into its military ranks.

This has already been done once during the war, and was deeply unpopular. Putin signed a decree to make it happen in September 2022, seven months after his invasion began.

It sparked protests around the country — something seldom seen in Russia — while scores of men fled abroad in a bid to avoid being mobilised.

Many of those who were drafted and sent to the front lines vented about their training and equipment online.

The first mobilisation lasted about a month, and saw 300,000 people pulled into the military. At the time that was done, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said, "no further measures are planned".

Legally, however, the framework that allowed Russia to start drafting civilians was never repealed, meaning Putin could order another mobilisation.

A Russian reservist bids farewell to relatives and friends before being taken for training in October 2022.(Reuters: Alexey Malgavko)

It would make political sense for an unpopular move like that to be announced after an election, rather than before it, even if the vote is rigged.

And there are indications it is coming. Late last year, Putin ordered the maximum number of Russian military personnel be increased to 2.2 million, including 1.32 million troops. The last time he demanded a boost like that was in August 2022, one month before his first mobilisation.

The country's defence ministry has also moved to decrease the number of diseases that can see people exempted from conscription.

Maria Andreyeva, whose husband was mobilised in October 2022, leads a protest in Moscow earlier this year.(Reuters)

While the exact number of casualties since the start of the war remains unclear, a declassified US document tabled in Congress in December last year estimated about 315,000 Russian military personnel had been killed or injured since the start of the invasion.

Further compounding Putin's headaches with regard to troop numbers is a push for the surviving soldiers mobilised in 2022 to be rotated out of service.

There's no legal requirement for him to do this, but a protest movement involving wives and mothers of conscripts is gathering momentum. Any crackdown on them would be unpopular.

Abortions are widely available in Russia, but last year, regulations began tightening, when several regions made it illegal for people to "coerce women" into terminating pregnancies.

While abortions remain legal — in fact, Russia's laws in this space have been quite liberal — authorities will begin restricting the sale of medication used to terminate pregnancies from September.

Some private clinics have stopped facilitating abortions altogether.

Two things appear to be driving this new, more conservative, approach. 

The first is ideological, and reflects the Russian Orthodox Church's influence over the Kremlin.

In December, the church announced its position that any form of abortion, at any time, equated to murder.

The second is practical: Russia's population is declining.

Data from statistics agency Rosstat shows Russia's population declined by 1 million in 2021 — the year before Moscow's soldiers started getting killed during the invasion of Ukraine.

German data company Statistia also said the population declined that year, albeit by less.

In January, the president gave a speech in which he described it as "important for us to have more large families" (in Russia, this is officially defined as couples with three or more children).

It's estimated more than 500,000 abortions were conducted in Russia in 2022, something Putin has dubbed "an acute problem". 

Some believe the figure is an underestimate, given not all pregnancy terminations are conducted via official channels.

In 2000, Putin addressed the issue directly, going as far to say the country's "destiny" depended on one thing: "how many of us there are and how many of us there will be."

But that number has gone backwards under his reign. Russia's government estimated the country's population was 146.4 million in early 2023 — a figure that includes the roughly 2.5 million people in Crimea, Ukrainian territory it has illegally occupied since 2014.

In 2022, Putin signed an order celebrating women who give birth to more than 10 children, who will be bestowed with the "Mother Heroine" award and given 1 million roubles ($16,500).

Everything points to a continuing crackdown on women's reproductive access. 

Even before its invasion of Ukraine, Russia's relationship with the West was deteriorating. But things have been getting worse, and it's not just about the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) says he'd rather work with Joe Biden.(Reuters: Kevin Lamarque/Alexei Nikolsky)

Putin's treatment of political opponents, like Alexei Navalny, has been denounced by Western leaders. Navalny, Russia's main opposition leader, died in prison earlier this year, aged 47, while serving a sentence of more than two decades on charges he said were trumped up.

He was just the latest in a line of dissidents and political rivals to be imprisoned or killed.

Navalny's death prompted an outcry from foreign leaders, including US President Joe Biden, who personally blamed Putin for it.

Americans are heading to the polls in November for a presidential election widely predicted to be a tight race. 

Putin has already expressed a desire to work with Biden over his challenger, Donald Trump.

That led to Biden to describe Putin as "crazy" at a fundraiser last month, which the Russian president said was "rude".

Then there's nuclear weapons. In February 2023, Putin used his state-of-the-nation address to suspend its participation in the New START Treaty with the United States, which limits the number of deployed intercontinental nukes the countries can have.

Later that year, Putin also declined to attend the G20 summit in India, where it was widely expected world leaders would rebuke his continuing war in Ukraine.

Things can still get worse.

Last week, the president told state media outlets Rossiya 1 and RIA Novosti he was prepared to use a nuclear weapon if there was a threat to the Russian state.

Putin has embarked on a modernisation of the country's nuclear stocks, and in October, during a speech in Sochi, he revealed more details about the experimental Burevestnik nuclear missile (which, if ever successfully developed, would have the range to reach Australia).

Putin also used the speech to suggest Russia could resume nuclear missile testing for the first time since 1990, which would mean detonating a weapon it knew worked somewhere remote.

Relationships between the West and Russia are at their lowest level since the Cold War, but there's still room for them to continue sinking over Putin's next term.