Voters headed to polling stations in Russia on Friday to cast their votes. 3-day presidential election This all but guarantees that President Vladimir Putin's rule, which has suppressed opposition, will be extended for another six years.
The election will be held against the following background: ruthless oppression it has Dysfunctional independent media and prominent rights organizations and gave Putin complete control of the political system.
Also comes as Moscow one war in ukraine is entering its third year. Russia has the advantage on the battlefield and is slowly making small gains. Meanwhile, Ukraine is making Moscow look vulnerable behind the front lines. High-tech drones are putting the Black Sea Fleet on the defensive as long-range drone strikes strike deep inside Russia.
Voters are casting their votes from Friday to Sunday at polling stations across 11 time zones in this vast country, as well as in illegally annexed territories of Ukraine. Russians can also vote online, the first time this option has been used in a presidential election. Officials said more than 200,000 people cast their votes online in Moscow shortly after voting opened.
election almost no suspense Putin, 71, is running for a fifth term virtually unopposed. His political opponents are either in prison or in exile, the most violent of whom is Alexei Navalny. He died in a remote penal colony in the Arctic Circle. last month. The other three candidates on the ballot are low-profile politicians from nominal opposition parties who toe the Kremlin line.
Observers have little hope that the elections will be free and fair. Besides the fact that voters have few choices, the possibilities for independent monitoring are very limited.
Only registered candidates or state-backed advisory bodies can assign observers to polling stations, making it unlikely that an independent monitoring body will be set up. Voting takes place over three days at approximately 100,000 polling stations across the country, making true monitoring difficult in any case.
“The elections across Russia are fake. The Kremlin controls who takes part in voting. The Kremlin controls how elections are campaigned. Not to mention that it can control every aspect of the voting and vote-counting process. ” said Sam Green, director of democratic resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington.
Ukraine and Western countries also condemned Russia for holding the vote in areas of Ukraine controlled and occupied by Russian forces.
Political analysts and opposition figures say Ukraine is in many ways central to this election. They argue that President Putin wants to use his almost certain election victory as evidence that the war and its response are widely supported. Meanwhile, the opposition hopes to use the vote to express dissatisfaction with both the war and the Kremlin.
kremlin expelled two politicians Those who tried to run on an anti-war agenda were picked off the ballot and received real, if not overwhelming support, thus depriving voters of choice on “key issues on Russia's political agenda.” said Abbas Gallyamov, a former political analyst. President Putin's speechwriter.
Russia's dispersed opposition is calling on those dissatisfied with President Vladimir Putin and the war to come to polling stations at noon on Sunday, the last day of voting, to protest. This strategy was endorsed by Navalny shortly before his death.
“We need to use voting day to show that we exist, that many of us exist, that we are real, living, real people and that we are against Putin …What you do next is up to you. You can vote for any candidate except Putin. Your ballot may be ruined,” said widow Yulia Navalnaya. .
It remains to be seen how well this strategy will work.
Russia's famous independent election monitoring group Golos said in a report this week that authorities are “doing everything they can to keep the public unaware of the very fact that elections are being held.”
The observer group described pre-vote campaigning as “almost unremarkable” and the “emptiest” since 2000, when Golos was founded and began monitoring Russia's elections.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with residents after visiting the Solnechny Dar greenhouse complex on the outskirts of Stavropol, Russia, March 5, 2024. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo, via AP, File)
Putin's campaign was a cover for the president's activities, and other candidates were “clearly reluctant,” the report said.
Golos said state media is spending less airtime on the election than in 2018, when Putin last won. The group says authorities are betting on pressuring voters they have control over (such as Russians working in state-owned companies and institutions) to come to polling stations, rather than promoting voting to ensure the desired turnout. It seems that there is.
Monitoring groups themselves are also facing a wave of repression. Grigory Melkonyanto, co-chairman of the monitoring group, is jailed and awaiting trial on charges widely seen as trying to pressure the group ahead of the election.
“This election will fail to reflect the true mood of the people,” Golos said in the report. “The distance between the people and the decision-making about the fate of the country has never been greater.”
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Follow Associated Press coverage of the Russian election. https://apnews.com/hub/russia-election
