As of: March 14, 2024, 4:06 a.m
By: Alexandra Heidsiek
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Press
Split
For the 2024 Russian election, Putin is not only resorting to repression.
To ensure record-breaking voter turnout, he's even giving away iPhones.
Moscow – From the military aviation school to the greenhouse complex: President Vladimir Putin is ramping up his election campaign in the last days before the Russian election.
He doesn't have to be afraid of losing.
Nevertheless, he wants to ensure a high voter turnout.
To achieve this, Putin's propaganda minions have given free rein to their creativity.
There is advertising for the 2024 Russian election not only on posters and on state television: in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, according to the exile media
Novaya Gazeta Europe,
intercoms on residential buildings are also calling for people to vote.
Events and concerts are taking place across the country, including the Kazan festival “The Whole Family Goes Voting” on March 17, which is expected to draw 50,000 people.
In addition to the usual repression of the opposition and the lack of serious opposition candidates, Putin is increasingly resorting to threats, coercion and raffles this year.
The focus is on Russia's traditionally rather apolitical youth.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is aiming for historic voter turnout © picture alliance/dpa/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP |
Mikhail Metzel
Vladimir Putin wants a Russian election with record turnout
The independent daily newspaper
Moscow Times
reports on students who are forced to vote by the university administration.
Students in Tula should take a photo of their voting card.
The pedagogical university in Voronezh, southern Russia, asked its students to tell the authorities who they wanted to cross for.
And in Perm, video cameras are designed to ensure the right choice.
But where there are sticks, there are also carrots: On Instagram,
Novaya Gazeta Europe
has collected the most bizarre rewards that the state promises voters.
There is a free lunch for the voice of students at Novosibirsk Technical University.
And in Altai on the border with Mongolia, you can even win an iPhone 15, a television or a Dyson hairdryer after voting.
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Putin is relying on online voting in selected cities in the Russian election
Putin aims to mobilize all those who hold a Russian passport - not only those in Russia, but especially those abroad.
Citizens in the areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia, i.e. in Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, are therefore also entitled to vote.
There are – “for security reasons,” as a
BBC
report shows – home visits by Russian state officials with ballot boxes.
The regime has even set up several voting stations in the pro-Russian separatist republic of Transnistria - much to the dismay of the Moldovan government.
In selected Russian cities and regions, including Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Tomsk and Sevastopol in Crimea, President Putin is now relying on online voting.
Physical voting stations have already been reduced in Moscow, as the independent online medium
Meduza
reported last year.
The longer waiting time in the remaining booths makes it easier for the regime's propaganda officers to film videos of long lines in front of the ballot box.
In addition, voting over the Internet offers “limitless potential for falsification,” sources close to the Kremlin told the newspaper.
The electronic remote voting system will be used for a presidential election for the first time this year.
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