The polling stations in Russia are open - citizens are voting for a new parliament.
At the same time, the government critic Navalny's app disappeared.
The news ticker.
Starting this Friday (September 17th), Russian citizens can vote for a new parliament.
The election is seen as an important test of mood for President Vladimir Putin.
At the beginning of the election, the app of the imprisoned government critic Alexej Navalny * is said to have suddenly disappeared from Google and Apple.
This election news ticker is continuously updated.
Moscow - The polling stations in Russia are open.
The three-day vote for the parliamentary election started this Friday morning at 8 a.m. CEST in all parts of the country.
At this time the last polling stations opened in the Baltic exclave around Kaliningrad, the westernmost part of Russia.
Up to and including Sunday (September 19) around 110 million people in Russia are called upon to vote on the composition of the new State Duma.
In many regions, regional and city parliaments are elected at the same time.
The Kremlin United Russia party wants to defend its absolute majority in the State Duma.
The polls are considered to be the mood test for President Vladimir Putin.
Election in Russia: Nalwany app disappeared from Google and Apple app stores
Explosive: The app of the imprisoned government critic Alexej Navalny * disappeared from the app stores of Google and Apple according to information from his supporters on the day of the parliamentary elections in Russia, as the German press agency reports.
The chairman of Navalny's anti-corruption foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, accused the two US companies on Twitter of having deleted the app.
"The authoritarian Russian government and propaganda will be delighted," he wrote.
According to a report by the “Tagesschau”, the Russian supervisory authority Roskomnadzor threatened Google and Apple with fines if the app did not disappear from the stores.
The offer could be seen as interference in the elections.
Navalny's app is supposed to help bring candidates outside the Putin party "United Russia" into the Duma.
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Parliamentary elections in Russia: Russian officials cast their votes at a polling station in Rostov-on-Don.
© dpa
Russia: Critical voices from Germany for the 2021 Duma election - "Not a real election"
Critical voices for the election have already been heard from Germany.
The FDP foreign politician Alexander Graf Lambsdorff has criticized the exclusion of opposition forces in the parliamentary elections in Russia.
"The citizens of the Russian Federation have no real choice in the Duma election in 2021," he told the dpa.
The Kremlin had planned in such a way that only a confirmation of Vladimir Putin's system could come out.
“With the poison attack and the subsequent imprisonment of Alexej Navalny *, President Putin also almost silenced his most important critic.
A sister party of the FDP in Russia, Parnassus, was banned entirely, another, Yabloko, is hindered and disadvantaged, ”said Lambdsdorff.
"In addition, the number of OSCE election observers should be reduced from almost 500 to 60, so that the organization could not possibly carry out its mission seriously and had to cancel it." Lambsdorff warned the German government not to stop bringing this up in talks with the Russian side.
(
nema with dpa
)
* Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
List of rubric lists: © Sergei Savostyanov / Imago
