Russians Vote In Election To Give Putin Six More Years

Reuters reports:

Russians cast their ballots across the country’s 11 time zones on Friday, the start of a three-day election that is almost certain to hand Vladimir Putin six more years at the helm of the world’s biggest nuclear power.

Amid the Ukraine war, the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, the 71-year-old Kremlin chief dominates Russia’s political landscape and none of the other three candidates on the ballot paper presents any credible challenge.

More than 114 million Russians are eligible to vote, including in what Moscow calls its “new territories” – four regions of Ukraine that its forces only partly control, but which it has claimed as part of Russia. Ukraine says the staging of elections there is illegal and void.

The Moscow Times reports:

Moscow authorities have threatened to criminally prosecute those who take part in election-day rallies aimed at expressing opposition to President Vladimir Putin.

Supporters of late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny are expected to go to polling stations at noon on Sunday — the final day of Russia’s presidential vote — to make a visible show of dissent in the absence of a viable opposition candidate.

The Moscow Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday said it had seen “publications on the internet” that called for “unauthorized mass events at polling stations” at 12:00 p.m. on March 17. It pointed to Article 141 of the Criminal Code, the obstruction of elections or citizens’ electoral rights, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Watch the bizarre ad below.

Moscow authorities have threatened to criminally prosecute those who take part in the “Noon Against Putin” election-day rallies called by allies of Alexei Navalny.https://t.co/7HbXIN8E2u

— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) March 14, 2024