The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, closed the electoral campaign this Thursday
with the clear objective of remaining
in the Kremlin for another six years, something more than likely, according to all the surveys, while calls for the West not to recognize the results of the elections increase. presidential.
The campaign has been turbulent, marked by the death of Alexei Navalny in a remote prison in the Arctic, and with Putin who has been focused on reinforcing his image as supreme commander of the Armed Forces in the midst of the offensive in the Ukrainian Donbas.
He has also focused on promoting the importance of speeding up production in the military industry, where, by some estimates,
3.5 million people work.
"The world must assume once and for all that Putin is not who he seems. In reality he is a usurper,
a tyrant, a war criminal and a murderer
," said Yulia Naválnaya, widow of the late Navalny, in an article published this week in 'The Washington Post'.
The 112 million Russians called to the polls
will be able to vote for three days - Friday, Saturday and Sunday -,
an option introduced during the pandemic, which the opposition considers fraudulent, as well as electronic voting, which can be exercised by a third of the electorate.
Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the late Navalny, speaks before the European Parliament.
Photo: FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP
Putin addressed Russians on television on Thursday to get them to vote in elections that he described as a "step towards the future" and stressed that the soldiers fighting in Ukraine "defending the homeland with courage and heroism and participating in the elections, They set an example for all of us."
Putin's historic victory, according to polls
Although more than half of Russians advocate opening peace negotiations with Ukraine and successes on the Ukrainian battlefield come in dribs and drabs,
Putin has a voting intention of more than 80%.
The Presidential Administration had informed the press that
it was looking for a historic victory to support the Kremlin's militaristic course
and everything indicates that it will achieve it, since Putin had never won an election by more than 77% of the votes.
Putin has a voting intention of more than 80%.
Photo: Reuters
The Central Election Commission (CEC)
only registered three candidates,
none of them really opposition: the communist Nikolai Kharitonov and the candidate of the New People, Vladislav Davankov, who have 6% of voting intention, and the ultranationalist Leonid Slutsky , which appears as third in disagreement with 5%.
By reforming the clauses of the Constitution that prevented him from remaining in the Kremlin, Putin will be able to run for re-election again in 2030, when he will be 77 years old.
Voting in the occupied territories
The president of the CEC, Ela Pamfilova, assured that "for the first time" the elections are held in "
such a toxic international atmosphere
" and accused Western countries of "an unprecedented cynical violation" of the right to vote of Russians that They reside abroad.
"This is not just a presidential election, at stake is the fate of Russia, what to do in the future. By the way, to a large extent (these elections) will determine how the world will develop. The transition from unfair monopoly to egalitarian relations between countries," he proclaimed.
The people's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk will also vote.
Photo: AFP
Pamfilova, who is accused by the opposition of manipulating the electoral results since she took office in 2016, announced that these days
the popular republics of Donetsk and Lugansk
, and the Zaporiya and Kherson regions will also vote, in reference to the four annexed Ukrainian territories. for Russia.
Up to
4.5 million residents
in areas occupied by the Russian Army will be able to exercise their right to vote, even if they do not have Russian citizenship, many of whom have already voted in advance.
The Navalny factor
The highest moment of the campaign
was Navalny's death in prison
- for which the family and the West blame Putin - but the Kremlin hopes that this factor does not stain his victory.
"I think they killed him. It was a premeditated decision.
I think they did it with poison
," Guennadi Gudkov, a former Russian deputy exiled in Bulgaria, told EFE.
Gudkov, who worked in the Federal Security Service (FSB), believes that the authorities decided to take revenge on the opponent
for "all the humiliations" to which he subjected them
over the years with his corruption complaints.
"The organizer was Putin," said Gudkov, who recalled that the initial plan was for Navalny to never leave prison, but they changed their mind after admitting the pardon granted to tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2013 as a "big mistake."
Not recognizing the results
For all these reasons, Naválnaya, the imprisoned opponent Vladimir Kara-Murzá and Gudkov address Western leaders, parliaments and societies with a single demand:
that they do not recognize "totally falsified" elections
, whose sole objective is to "retain power."
"The West should not recognize the results. Recognizing Putin as head of state after the elections will be a sign of weakness," he said.
He assured that
"there have never been such criminal elections in Russia,"
since they take place when Russian troops violate international law and commit "war crimes" in Ukraine.
"We are not asking for the embassies to be closed," he said, adding that, at the very least, Western countries "should not recognize the elections as legitimate."
With information from EFE