By Alain Barluet
Published yesterday at 8:41 p.m., updated yesterday at 8:41 p.m.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and Vladimir Putin on January 25, 2023 during a visit to Lomonosov University in the Russian capital. Sputnik/Maksim Mishin/Pool via Portal
DECRYPTION – Local elections will be held this weekend amid concerns about the war.
Correspondent in Moscow
“You’re all going to vote for Sobyanin, aren’t you?”: With a smile, the leader sends his little message to the group that visited the exhibition on public transport in Moscow, organized in the Manège building within the walls of the Kremlin. 3D projections, interactive terminals, high-tech installations, this entire big-budget event could be summed up in an ode to the glory of Sergei Sobyanin, 65, mayor of Moscow since 2010. He should logically keep his position, the result of very closed elections that lasted three days until Sunday in the capital, but also in 81 of Russia’s 89 administrative regions (including four regions annexed to Ukraine) to renew some of the elected local officials, 17 governors and a few held deputies in the Duma.
For those in power, it is a “test” intended to show that the electoral process as well as the social climate before the presidential election is under control…
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