As of: March 15, 2024, 5:02 a.m
By: Bettina Menzel
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Press
Split
Russia votes.
For the first time in Ukraine: people in the occupied territories are called upon to cast their votes.
Moscow does not shy away from coercive measures.
Moscow – Moscow is talking about elections, Kremlin opponents are talking about sham elections.
In any case, the result is considered certain: Russian President Vladimir Putin will remain in office for another six years.
And something else is apparently already certain: the authorities in the occupied territories will claim after the election that an overwhelming majority voted for Putin.
At least that is the assessment of the British Ministry of Defense.
Mobile polling stations and armed soldiers: This is how the “elections” work in the occupied territories
The presidential elections in Russia will take place on March 15-17.
Voting has begun early in the occupied territories of Ukraine, local authorities said.
Russia has no legitimate basis for holding elections in Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defense said on the X platform (formerly Twitter).
The credibility of elections in the occupied territories is undermined by a lack of representation and coercive measures to encourage people to vote.
According to the British, 2,600 officials have been deployed in the Luhansk region to visit people at home and persuade them to vote.
Heads of educational and other government institutions have also been instructed to ensure that others go to the polls.
It is “very likely that the occupying authorities in these areas will claim a high turnout with overwhelming support for [President Vladimir] Putin, regardless of what actually happens,” the Defense Ministry in London said.
Photos from the occupied territories show transparent boxes called mobile polling stations and armed soldiers guarding voting.
Kiev accuses Moscow of using threats and violence to force people there to vote.
A mobile polling station in the Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast enables early voting (picture from March 11, 2024).
© IMAGO/Stanislav Krasilnikov/SNA
The occupied territories
The Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 in violation of international law.
In 2022, Moscow held mock referendums in the four Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and subsequently annexed these regions as well.
The UN General Assembly strongly condemned this.
143 countries called on Russia to reverse the decision.
According to the Russian Election Commission, there are a total of 112.3 million eligible voters in Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
1.9 million eligible voters live abroad.
Putin's test of strength: elections in the occupied territories without independent election observers
Since there are no independent election observers and voter lists are missing in at least one city, the potential for the results to be falsified is increased, the British Ministry of Defense explained about the elections in the occupied territories.
There are three “opponent candidates” on the ballot paper from pro-Kremlin parties who, according to surveys, only have single-digit percentages and therefore pose no threat to Putin.
“Even if many votes were allocated to one of them, there is still electronic voting, voting on the Internet,” explained political scientist Margarita Zavadskaya in an interview with
Deutschlandfunk
.
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In addition to Vladimir Putin, there are three other names on the ballot in the Russian elections: Vladislav Davankov, Nikolai Kharitonov and Leonid Slutsky.
© IMAGO/Dmitry Yagodkin/ITAR-Tass
If someone gets too many votes, “then it’s simply corrected via this black box.
Votes for Putin are easily generated.” According to the AP
news agency, the online voting option is
available in 27 Russian regions and the Crimean peninsula.
The Kremlin did not allow opposition candidates like Boris Nadezhdin to stand for election anyway.
It still makes sense for Putin opponents to go to the polls and inflict “maximum damage” on state power, said Zavadskaya.
Protest action “Lunch against Putin”: Navalny lettering on the ballot paper
The opposition is therefore calling for a “Lunchtime against Putin” protest: All of the president’s opponents should come to the polling stations at the same time on Sunday, March 17th at 12 p.m. and then vote for one of the opposing candidates or cast the ballot paper with the words “Navalny” on it. invalidate.
The widow of opposition activist Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, also promoted the campaign.
Putin sees “these elections as a referendum […] on approving war,” the Russian opposition’s hope, Navalny, said before his death from prison.
"Let's thwart his plans and make sure that on March 17th no one is interested in the fake result, but all of Russia has seen and understood: the will of the majority is that Putin has to go," was the message from the opposition figure also called for election protest before his death.
Putin also called for the Russia election in the annexed territories of Ukraine and described participation as an “expression of patriotism,” as the Kremlin chief said in a video speech, according to the Russian news agency
Tass
.
Russia recently rewrote the constitution, allowing the 71-year-old to serve two more terms in office.
Putin could remain president until 2036.
The Kremlin leader is already the longest-serving Russian ruler since the dictator Josef Stalin.
(bme)