Russian President Vladimir Putin closed the electoral campaign today with the clear objective of perpetuating another six years in the Kremlin, something more than likely, according to all the polls, while calls for the West not to recognize the results of the presidential elections increase.

“The world must assume once and for all that Putin is not who he appears. He is actually a usurper, a tyrant, a war criminal and a murderer,” said Yulia Naválnaya, widow of the late opposition leader, Alexéi Navalni, in an article published this week in The Washington Post.

The 112 million Russians called to the polls will be able to vote for three days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday -, an option introduced during the pandemic, which the opposition considers fraudulent, as well as electronic voting, which a third of the electorate will be able to exercise.

Putin addressed the Russians on Thursday on television to come and vote in elections that he described as a “step into the future” and stressed that the soldiers who fight in Ukraine “defending the homeland with courage and heroism and participating in the elections, give an example to all of us.”

Despite the fact that more than half of Russians advocate opening peace negotiations with Ukraine and the successes on the Ukrainian battlefield come with a eye-t-eater, Putin has a voting intention of more than 80%.
The presidential administration had informed the press that it was looking for a historic victory to support the Kremlin’s militaristic course and everything indicates that it will achieve it, since Putin had never won elections by more than 77% of the votes.

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The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) only registered three candidates, none of them really opposition: the communist Nikolai Kharitonov and the candidate of the New People, Vladislav Davankov, who have a 6% voting intention, and the ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutski, who is listed as third in discord with 5%.

By reforming the clauses of the Constitution that prevented him from remaining in the Kremlin, Putin will be able to run for re-election again in 2030, by the time he will be 77 years old.

The president of the CEC, Ela Pamfílova, said today that “for the first time” the elections are held in “such a toxic international atmosphere” and accused Western countries of “an unprecedented cynical violation” of the right to vote of Russians residing abroad.

“This is not simply a president’s election, the destiny of Russia is at stake, what to do in the future. By the way, to a large extent (these elections) will determine how the world will develop. The transition from the unfair monopoly to equal relations between countries,” he proclaimed.

Pamfilova, who is accused by the opposition of manipulating the electoral results since she took office in 2016, said that these days the popular republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and the Zaporiya and Kherson regions, will also vote, in reference to the four Ukrainian territories annexed by Russia.

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Up to 4.5 million residents in the areas occupied by the Russian Army will be able to exercise their right to vote, even if they lack Russian citizenship, many of them have already voted in advance.

The highest moment of the campaign was the death of Navalni in prison – and for which the family and the West hold Putin responsible – but the Kremlin hopes that this factor will not stain his victory.

“I think they killed him. It was a premeditated decision. I think they did it with poison,” Guennadi Gudkov, a former Russian deputy exiled in Bulgaria, told EFE.

Gudkov, who worked in the Federal Security Service (FSB), believes that the authorities decided to take revenge on the opponent for “all the humiliations” to which he subjected them over the years with his allegations of corruption.

“The organizer was Putin,” said Gudkov, who recalled that the initial plan was for Navalni to never leave prison, but they changed their minds after admitting as a “great mistake” the pardon granted to the tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2013.

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For all these reasons, Navalnaya, the imprisoned opposition Vladimir Kara-Murzá and Gudkov address Western leaders, parliaments and societies with a single demand: that they do not recognize “totally falsified” elections, whose only objective is to “retain power.”

“The West should not recognize the results. Recognizing Putin as head of state after the elections will be a sign of weakness,” he said.

He assured that “there have never been such criminal elections in Russia,” since they take place when Russian troops violate international law and commit “war crimes” in Ukraine.

“We do not ask that the embassies be closed,” he said, adding that, at least, Western countries “should not recognize the elections as legitimate.”

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