Opposition muzzled, critical voices about the Ukraine conflict summarily suppressed: Russia voted without tension in the regional elections on Sunday against the backdrop of the offensive in Ukraine.
• Also read: Regional elections in Russia: Putin votes online and calls on Russians to vote
• Also read: Canada strongly condemns sham elections in Russia
Russia’s Central Election Commission said Sunday evening that President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party came first in these regional elections in the four regions of Ukraine annexed by Moscow.
The President of the Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, welcomed the fact that the elections were “dynamic and with few violations”.
With these elections, which span three days from Friday to Sunday, Moscow is trying to legitimize its annexations in Ukraine through votes in the occupied territories in the east and south.
Despite strong condemnation from the West, in September 2022 Russia announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions over which it only partially controls – Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk – after “referendums” not recognized by the international community. Kiev and its allies have already denounced “illegal” elections.
AFP
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 cause any surprises.
But this time a few months before the presidential elections scheduled for early 2024, which could consolidate Vladimir Putin in power until 2030.
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, 40, occupational safety specialist.
“Everyone is concerned with only one problem: war. “We don’t have any other problems,” assures Anatoli, an 84-year-old pensioner.
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.
AFP
Mr. Sobyanin, on the other hand, has been omnipresent on television in recent days, introducing new regional train lines and a toll highway or inaugurating renovated hospitals.
Muscovites AFP met said they appreciated the modern transformation the Russian capital has embarked on under Mr Sobyanin’s leadership.
“Moscow is blooming before our eyes!” shouts Roukhine Aliev, a 21-year-old student.
“We’re just for him!” says Olga, a 67-year-old pensioner.
AFP
Several hundred kilometers southwest of Moscow, in the border regions of Ukraine, a regular target of attacks from Kiev, the security conditions for organizing the vote 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.