Putin calls on Russians to vote in flawed elections
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin called on the public to vote in the elections that begin on Friday and are overshadowed by allegations of fraud and manipulation.
“Only you, the citizens of Russia, determine the fate of the fatherland,” Putin said in a speech broadcast on state television at night with excerpts quoted by Russian media on Thursday morning.
Russians are due to head to the polls for a presidential election that concludes on Sunday, with Putin seeking a further six-year term. His re-election is seen as a foregone conclusion in the absence of any serious challenger, but the authorities are doing their utmost to present the poll as convincing.
Three rival candidates, who either openly support Putin or who follow the Kremlin’s line, are seen as having no chance, according to a survey of eligible voters by a pro-government pollster earlier this week.
“The elections are a step into the future,” said Putin.
He also briefly mentioned the war on Ukraine, which he launched in February 2022, praising Russian soldiers for their “courage and heroism.” Putin also mentioned the elections being held in territories of Ukraine illegally annexed by Moscow during the war.
These votes, organized by Moscow in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions, as well as Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, are illegal under international law and are not recognised internationally as elections. Russians vote in presidential elections from March 15 to 17 and are widely expected to secure Putin his fifth term in office. Kremlin opponents are calling for the result not to be recognized as the polls do not meet democratic standards, with independent observers noting cases of fraud and manipulation.
The central election commission did not authorize any opposing candidates to run in the election and others are in prison or have fled abroad, meaning Putin has no serious opposition. Just last month, dissident Alexei Navalny, a well-known Kremlin opponent who was long persecuted by the government, died in prison.
His death was blamed by many in Russia and abroad on the authorities. The team of Kremlin opponent Navalny, who died in a prison camp last month, has given advice on how to protest against incumbent Vladimir Putin on the day of Russia’s presidential election.
Opponents of Putin should gather at polling stations at noon on Sunday, the main day of the three-day ballot, to publicly show their rejection of the Kremlin leader, opposition activist Leonid Volkov said on Thursday. Volkov was Navalny’s chief of staff. Russia has eleven time zones, so the protests would therefore be repeated hourly in different parts of the country during the day.
Volkov, who was beaten with a hammer and seriously injured in an attack in his exile in Lithuania on Tuesday, showed himself in a video clip with a splinted arm after a fracture and with one leg bandaged. The politician, who was one of the closest associates of Navalny, said that a tick should be made for at least two names on the ballot papers, but preferably for all four candidates. This would invalidate the ballot paper.
It is not possible to bring about a change of power in Russia through elections because the results are manipulated, said Volkov, but a lot could be done to put the power apparatus under pressure.
In addition to Putin, three other candidates are running who, as Duma deputies, are fully in line with the Kremlin and some of whom also directly support the incumbent. Like Putin, they are all “scoundrels,” said Volkov. The vote, which has been criticized as a farce and is intended to keep Putin in power, begins this Friday. Moscow puts the number of voters in Russia at 112 million - but this figure actually includes 4.5 million people in the occupied parts of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.
The team of Alexei Kremlin opponent Navalny, who died in a prison camp last month, has given advice on how to protest against incumbent Vladimir Putin on the day of Russia’s presidential election.