Russia has annexed almost a fifth of Ukraine – areas that play a key role in staging Putin’s fifth presidential election. In order to produce results, they use special clauses in the electoral law.
Russia occupies almost 18 percent of Ukrainian territory, where around five million people live – ten years after Russia began its hybrid attack on the country. This is how large parts of the international community see it.
The Kremlin’s version is that Russia now has new territories that themselves expressed their desire to be annexed by Moscow in referendums in the fall of 2022 (or in March 2014 in Crimea). In order to provide further confirmation of this narrative, not only authorities and infrastructure are being Russified, but their alleged loyalty to the Kremlin is also being staged. They are of particular importance in the presidential elections in Russia called for this weekend.
For Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin it is important to show that, on the one hand, he has the occupied Ukrainian territories under control to such an extent that he can hold elections there while his troops are fighting against Ukrainian troops, some of them just a few kilometers away. And on the other hand, he is in a position to achieve a result in his favor that is consistent with the narrative of devotion – as a result, both the approval rate and the voter turnout must be high.
Request for candidacy from Donetsk
To this end, the forces deployed by Russia leave nothing to chance. The forces around Donetsk already played a key role in staging Putin’s candidacy.
At the beginning of December, Putin was approached by Artyom Shoga, speaker of parliament in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, at a military medal ceremony and asked to run. “I wanted to ask you on behalf of our people, our Donbas, the repatriated lands, to take part in these elections. Thanks to your decision, we have gained freedom and the right to vote. We want to take part in the Russian presidential elections. And you are our president” said Shoga, who had already sat in the front row at the ceremony marking the annexation of the occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia.
Putin’s answer that he had decided on his fifth candidacy after a long period of consideration followed promptly.
Three days later, the Russian Central Election Commission announced that voting would take place in the occupied parts of the four oblasts around the cities of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson. On this occasion, too, the rulers appointed by Russia publicly assured how important it was for them and the citizens to take part in the elections.
Artyom Shoga, an official in the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic”, repeatedly acts as a cue for Putin.
Early voting
When it comes to implementing the staged elections, the forces deployed by occupier Russia have a clear task – and far-reaching powers. The Kommersant newspaper reported at the beginning of February that early voting would take place in the “four new constituent entities of the Russian Federation” where martial law still applies. The respective local election commission determines the periods for this itself. Galina Katyushchenko, head of the Russian-appointed election commission in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, is quoted as saying that her staff would come to citizens’ homes so they could vote.
The basis for this is a passage about “difficult to access or remote areas” in the Russian electoral law, which otherwise applies to workers on Arctic oil rigs, for example, and which will also apply in 2024 to the annexed Ukrainian territories and the cities of Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk, which are important for war logistics .
“The West doesn’t need Russia, we need Russia!” reads one of Putin’s election posters in Sevastopol.
“Home visits” since February 27th
The law stipulates that eligible voters can cast their votes no earlier than 20 days before the main election day – as the state agency Tass reports, the rulers appointed by Moscow have been going from house to house in the Zaporizhzhia area since February 25th. As of March 12, according to Katyushchenko, 36.22 percent of the 470,342 eligible voters had voted and were delighted with the convenience of voting in their own home. Polling stations are also scheduled to open on March 17, the last day of the three regular voting days planned in Russia.
In the occupied area around Kherson, early voting for the 468,472 voters registered by Russia was completed on March 3, as the person responsible there, Marina Zakharova, who was appointed by Russia, announced. It began on February 27th and voting took place, among other things, in the open air and through home visits.
The other system parties in Russia are not idle in Ukraine either: the Communist Party is sending a truck with its party emblem and the inscription “Humanitarian aid to the brother people of Donbas – not an inch to the fascists!” to Luhansk.
doubt sth election observers
In the Russian-annexed former “People’s Republic” of Donetsk, voting for 1.97 million people has been running since March 10th and is scheduled to end on March 14th, as well as in the Luhansk region. Apparently they are particularly attuned to the numerous senior citizens among the 1.65 million eligible voters: for the first time there are “ballot templates” and magnifying glasses for the visually impaired, and information material is also available in Braille, emphasizes the person in charge there, Elena Kravchenko. In Crimea, which was annexed to Russia in 2014, people can also vote online, as they can throughout Russia.
There should also be election observers, assures Gennadij Askaldovich from the Russian Election Commission: More than 1,000 international observers traveled from abroad, including to the occupied territories – under “maximum security measures”. However, these mainly come from states that are governed in an autocratic to dictatorial manner – including Venezuela, Myanmar, Cameroon and Serbia. From Germany want to come ARD information Three AfD MPs arrive as “democracy experts”, but the OSCE or the Russian organization “Golos” are not welcome. Under these circumstances, an independent inspection and audit of the electoral process is unlikely to be possible.
In order to distract from inconsistencies, Putin has another tried and tested method: visiting one of the territories during or shortly after the election in order to produce press photos there in which people either cheer him on – or he checks the work of the authorities appointed by Moscow. A year earlier, Putin had been shown the supposedly flourishing reconstruction in the port city of Mariupol, which was conquered by Russia. The loyalists are likely to be in the front row at his inauguration, which is scheduled for May 7th.