Russia organized regional elections this weekend without tension, against the background of the war in Ukraine and a few months before the presidential election.
The Central Election Commission of Russia confirmed on Sunday, September 10, that President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party took first place in regional elections in the four Moscow-annexed regions of Ukraine.
According to the first results published on the commission’s website and while the count is still ongoing, voters in these occupied regions in eastern and southern Ukraine support United Russia. Kiev and its Western allies have denounced “illegal” elections.
Regional elections without tension
The opposition was silenced, critical voices about the Ukraine conflict were mercilessly suppressed: The regional elections this Sunday in Russia, which also took place in the rest of the country, took place without tension despite the offensive in Ukraine in the background. With these elections, which span three days from Friday to Sunday, Moscow is trying to legitimize its annexations in Ukraine by letting the occupied territories in the east and south vote. Fighting is still raging there and the Ukrainian army has launched a counteroffensive.
For more than a year and a half, thousands of Russians have been sentenced to severe penalties for protesting against the offensive in Ukraine. There is no real opposition “outside the system”: opponents are either in prison or in exile.
The outcome of these elections for the appointment of governors, regional representatives and local elected officials should therefore not lead to any surprises. The President of the Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, welcomed the fact that the elections were “dynamic and with few violations”.
But this time a few months before the presidential elections scheduled for early 2024, which could consolidate Vladimir Putin in power until 2030.
Vote amid fighting in the annexed regions
In the four annexed Ukrainian regions, the occupying authorities have made every effort to provide a semblance of normality despite the ongoing fighting. In the Donetsk region, voters cast ballots with the double-headed Russian eagle, while in the Kherson region, Governor Vladimir Saldo declared Friday a holiday so that every citizen could “express their position.”
The ballot paper is also marked by conflict in several Russian regions, where the influx of voters is traditionally greatest on Sundays. In Rostov-on-Don, a major city in southwest Russia not far from Ukraine that was hit by a drone attack this week, two voters interviewed by AFP near a polling station on Sunday spontaneously cited this armed conflict as their main concern.
“Above all, we want to live in peace, we and our children,” said Nina Antonova, an occupational safety specialist, 40. “Everyone is concerned with only one problem: war. “We don’t have any other problems,” assures Anatoli, an 84-year-old pensioner.
Shadow campaign in Moscow
The election campaign was hardly noticeable in Moscow; posters of candidates, including outgoing mayor Sergei Sobyanin, a supporter of Vladimir Putin who has been in office since 2010, were rarely seen on the streets.
Sergei Sobyanin, on the other hand, has been omnipresent on television in recent days when he opened new regional train lines and a toll highway or inaugurated renovated hospitals. Muscovites AFP met said they appreciated the modern transformation that the Russian capital has embarked on under the leadership of Sergei Sobyanin.
Several hundred kilometers southwest of Moscow, in the border regions of Ukraine, regularly the target of attacks from Kiev, the security conditions for organizing the election are precarious. The head of the electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, already announced that the vote in the city of Chebekino in the Belgorod region was postponed “due to the high alert.”
The only important political fact: In southern Siberia, the Communist Party candidate Valentin Konovalov, 35, is seeking re-election in the mountainous and sparsely populated region of Khakhasia. According to the official TASS agency, he is far ahead of his opponents.