Regional and municipal elections in Russia, including in annexed regions of Ukraine, concluded on Sunday, the 10th of September, boosting support for president Vladimir Putin despite accusations of vote-rigging and objections from the Council of Europe and Kyiv, which see it as a violation of international law and an illegal effort to consolidate Moscow’s grip on Ukrainian territories, reports Reuters.
Elections across Russia, including in annexed regions, consolidated the power of Putin’s United Russia party, showing Putin as a stable political figure, however electoral competition in regions was limited as the authorities banned strong candidates, including from the opposition.
Stanislav Andreychuk, co-chair of the voters’ rights group Golos, which has been labelled a foreign agent, has claimed that there was obvious vote-rigging, that opposition candidates were being intimidated and that “this is not a real election”.
But the Kremlin claims that Putin is popular, and the elections are fair.
All the major political forces in Russia, including the bogus opposition parties, are largely loyal to Putin and his war in Ukraine. United Russia won all provincial governor’s elections. Influential Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, a close Putin ally, won with over 75% of the vote. Kremlin critics claim that the elections in Moscow were rigged because of an electronic voting system that is impossible to audit. Similar systems exist in other Russian regions.
Kremlin-backed candidates won elections in four disputed regions of Ukraine, including Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Luhansk, which Russia annexed last year. Most countries consider these regions to be part of Ukraine, and the Japanese Foreign Minister called
the Russian elections in these territories unacceptable.
The results of the elections ensured a full term for the Kremlin’s handpicked governors in these territories.
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