Moscow Mayor Serguei Sobyanin, close to Vladimir Putin and in office since 2010, was re-elected in regional elections that took place this Sunday in Russia and the four annexed territories of Ukraine, according to the Electoral Commission.
“The winner is already known and without any mistake,” declared Central Electoral Commission member Nikolai Boulaiev, congratulating the mayor “on his convincing victory.”
Serguei Sobyanin, a reserved 63-year-old man who heads Europe’s largest city with a population of about 13 million, has been defined as a “pure product” of the technocratic elite close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During the past eighteen months, during the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, the main mission was to ensure the functioning of Moscow and maintain a climate of order in the Russian capital, despite sanctions affecting the economy, military mobilization, repression of the opposition and the Ukrainian ‘drones’ (unmanned devices) that are storming the city with increasing regularity.
His re-election was a given, in a campaign without debates or opponents, in a megalopolis that has already established itself as the main voice of the opposition’s anti-Putin protests, AFP news agency said.
In 2022, and after the Russian president ordered a partial mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Russians to fight in Ukraine, triggering an exodus abroad, it was Sobyanin who assured Muscovites a month later that they were exempt from the call to the military ranks. .
The powerful mayor also minimized the danger from ‘drones’ that have hit Moscow and have caused minor damage so far.
Sobyanin avoids commenting on the war in Ukraine and its consequences, choosing to refer to the offensive in general terms, in an attempt to minimize its impact on the daily lives of the population.
“Despite a large number of difficulties, problems and crises that we will experience in our country, we will win, we will overcome these problems and become stronger,” he declared at a municipal forum in August.
Russia today held regional and municipal elections, including in the four areas in Ukraine annexed by Moscow.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the worst security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Ukraine’s Western allies have supplied weapons to Kiev and approved successive sanctions packages against Russian interests to try to reduce Moscow’s ability to finance the war effort.
Source: DN
