After the sham elections, there is a clear winner: Putin’s United Russia party. The Kremlin is satisfied and wants to create “legal power structures” in the annexed regions. The people in eastern Ukraine did not have a choice.
Satisfaction in the Kremlin camp the day after local and regional elections in Russia and the annexed regions in eastern Ukraine. From the perspective of the ruling party, there were no unpleasant surprises. The Kremlin party United Russia celebrates itself as the clear winner almost everywhere. Governors, regional parliaments, city and municipal councils and mayors were appointed.
According to preliminary official final results, all governors in 21 regions were re-elected. The Central Election Commission said they received between 63 and 86 percent of the votes. One of the most important votes was certainly the one for the new mayor in Moscow. Incumbent Sergei Sobyanin was declared the winner there with more than 76 percent of the vote. He ran against largely unknown opposing candidates.
Sobyanin thanked you for the “lively Voter turnout”
Sobyanin thanked his voters for their active participation in the vote, which was well below 50 percent. However, it was higher than last time, when only just under a third of those eligible to vote went to the polls.
“In Moscow, voter turnout in the mayoral election was unprecedentedly high,” said Sobyanin. “At least compared to recent years – 43 percent. I would like to thank the citizens of Moscow for their active citizenship.” This is very important – “especially today during a complicated phase of our lives, our reality”.
Hardly any posters or party stands in cities
What Sobyanin is only hinting at here: These were elections in times of war – or “special military operations,” as it’s officially called. United Russia party leader Dmitry Medvedev claimed that this issue helped shape the election. The topic of the “special military operation” was undoubtedly one of the most important “that was raised and discussed during the election meetings held by our candidates,” said Medvedev.
But there had hardly been an election campaign with posters, party stands in pedestrian zones or even duels on television. Well-known members of the opposition are in prison or have fled abroad. Even the slightest criticism of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine entails harsh penalties.
Russian soldiers were present in front of and also in the polling stations in the annexed regions.
However, Medvedev emphasized that as a result of the elections, the “new regions” – by which he meant the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions that were annexed in violation of international law – had become a full-fledged part of Russia. “And that is very important,” emphasized the party leader. “It is now possible to form normal, fully-fledged and legal Russian power structures in the regions so that they can fulfill all their tasks and competencies accordingly.”
Massive restriction of civil rights
The situation in these regions in particular is characterized by massive human rights violations and restrictions on civil rights. There is war – large parts of the population have fled from the Russian troops. Ukrainian human rights activists report that approximately half of both voter and candidate lists consisted of citizens of the Russian Federation who had never lived in Ukraine as of 2022.
Medvedev expressly pointed out that even participants in the “special military operation” stood as candidates in the election: “Of the participants in the ‘special military operation’ alone, there were over 100 people from our party’s ranks.” They also ran for various parliamentary positions and other offices.
There were no independent election observers on site. The government in Kiev had called for the sham elections not to be recognized. The Council of Europe said the elections represented a blatant violation of international law, which Russia was flouting.