Moscow and the Russian border with Ukraine are separated by 800 kilometers, the distance between living as if the war did not exist or having to seek refuge at any moment from the bombs.
In these two very different Russias, Vladimir Putin has reigned for 24 years, and his
rule
will be extended after this Sunday for another six years thanks to elections in which he has not allowed any real opposition.
A few hours before the end of this three-day vote, the participation that the Kremlin aims for, more than 70%, already exceeds the results obtained in the previous presidential elections in 2018. Objective achieved to justify its next and unpopular orders.
For Putin, only these elections are going “according to plan.”
After two years and a month of war, its border regions have become a daily target of Ukrainian drones and rockets.
However, the most important thing for the president is that power is under control.
Putin's rivals have been crushed, the electoral system presents enormous suspicions, starting with the opaque electronic voting, and the security forces and their judges leave no room for peaceful protest.
Voters dissatisfied with the Kremlin can barely show their anger with gestures that are as symbolic as they are harmless.
However, an important part of the population, if not an overwhelming majority, supports the president.
It is impossible to verify this without open elections, but according to the independent polling center Levada, Putin's approval within Russia is around 85%.
The president has never had fewer rivals in an election.
Only three candidacies have been approved by his shadow adviser, Sergei Kiriyenko.
All of them from formations loyal to power.
Specifically, Nikolai Kharitonov, who is not even the leader of the Communist Party and already failed miserably in the 2004 elections;
Leonid Slutski, successor of the populist Vladimir Zhirinovski and whose popularity at the head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) is zero;
and Vladislav Davankov, head of New People, a Kremlin satellite party created in 2019 to engage new generations.
Beyond the cosmopolitan Moscow and Saint Petersburg, countless Russian cities feed their army with volunteers.
Many do it out of patriotism and others for a salary that is unimaginable in their provinces: 205,000 rubles (about 2,000 euros), between four and six times more than what an average job offers.
And if they die or are injured, compensation for their family skyrockets by several million rubles.
Moscow, a liberal city far from death
Moscow lives oblivious to the war.
Its restaurants and nightclubs have never been evacuated due to an air raid alarm, and soldiers are not seen on its streets, except in the train stations, where volunteers and mobilized people from other poorer regions of Russia pass on their way to the front.
There are also hardly any posters of the presidential candidates, although advertisements encouraging people to vote flood every corner of the city.
Candidate Putin's electoral propaganda is non-existent, but the news and praise of President Putin are constant.
Dozens of Russians queue at 12 in the morning on Sunday at the entrance to polling station 51 in Moscow.
It is the time at which they have been called to protest symbolically.
The call was made by the team of Putin's main opponent, Alexei Navalny, who died a month ago under strange circumstances in the Arctic Circle prison where he was confined by the authorities.
This is one of the countless small gatherings that are repeated in the rest of the country's electoral centers, which have also been echoed in different European capitals where Russian dissidents have gathered at midday.
They are small silent protests that do not offer the spectacular image of the opposition that Navalni's funeral achieved, because voters are dispersed in thousands of parts of the nation.
“It is not an act that is going to change anything, but it is a demonstration for myself,” says Alexandra, a woman who went to vote accompanied by her young daughter, at a school in the Russian capital.
“I support Navalni,” she acknowledges while she waits to vote.
The police watch from afar.
“Moscow is a liberal city, it is not Russia,” Andréi, in his thirties, remarks to this newspaper while waiting in line.
“In addition, we are also divided here,” adds the young man before stating that he is going to vote for the current Russian president.
“I never voted for Putin, but in 2022 – the year the invasion of Ukraine began – I changed my mind.
I saw the hypocrisy of European values, how they give false hugs.
His sanctions, his hatred of the Russians," says Andréi, who expresses a very widespread opinion in Russia: "Navalni was not the favorite politician of many Russians," he says before asserting that his image "has been overstated in Europe, like the from his widow, Yulia Navalnaya.”
At least 75 people have been detained in 17 Russian cities during this Sunday, the third and final day of the presidential elections, according to the OVD-Info platform.
This organization for the protection of protesters reveals that some voters were arrested for introducing invalid ballots or showing their opinions openly at polling stations.
Russian media revealed that some ballots had messages written such as “No to war!”
or “Navalni”.
In fact, some followers of the dissident placed electoral ballots at the grave of Putin's great political enemy.
Belgorod, ghost city in continuous tension
In the Russian city of Belgorod, about 40 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, the elections are experienced in a very different way from Moscow.
Belgorod has changed radically in the last year and is now a ghost town.
A large part of its population has left as Ukrainian attacks have intensified in recent months, and concrete anti-drone shelters have sprung up everywhere in the streets.
Mikhail is a former military pilot, a Russian veteran of the 1979-1989 Afghanistan war, who is not considering leaving Belgorod and defends the president: “It is not necessary for Putin to have competitors in the elections,” says Mikhail.
“He has the power, it's about being strong.”
He also justifies war.
"There's no way to avoid it.
We invaded Ukraine and I understand that we need it,” says Mijaíl.
However, her wife Yana points out to her husband: “But before 2022 they never attacked us.”
However, both share that Putin is the best option for Russia and for them.
The train from Belgorod to Moscow was packed on Saturday, especially with children accompanied by their mothers and grandmothers, and soldiers returning from the front.
In the capital, much safer, awaited a Putin ready to begin his fifth term after the conclusion of the electoral farce.
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