Russia’s Central Election Commission (CCE) announced on Monday that the ruling party won a majority of votes in elections held in occupied Ukrainian regions last week.
The preliminary results were released at a time when Russian authorities are trying to consolidate control over areas that Moscow illegally annexed a year ago and that the country still does not fully control.
Voting for Russian-installed parliaments began last week and, according to the CCE, deputies from the ruling United Russia party came first in the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed in 2022 – Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporijia – and in Crimea . Peninsula, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014.
The vote in the occupied territories of Ukraine was denounced by Kiev and the West as a sham and a violation of international law.
On Friday, Ukrainian authorities asked the international community not to recognize the outcome of the vote, which the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry deemed “false.”
Voting in the illegally annexed Ukrainian regions coincided with national elections for local legislatures and governors in sixteen Russian regions.
There were also several votes for municipal councils across the country and elections for some vacant seats in the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.
In Moscow, the United Russia party received the highest number of votes, more than 76%, and reappointed Sergei Sobyanin as Speaker of the House.
Russian CCE director Ella Pamfilova said the participation rate was 43.5%, the highest since 2017, a rate that includes Russia and the occupied Ukrainian regions.
In an illegally annexed Ukrainian region, Russian state media reported that participation rates were even higher.
Marina Zakharova, chairman of the Russian-installed Kherson Election Commission, said on Sunday that 65.36% of the region’s residents voted in the elections.
The Kherson region is not fully under Russian control and local residents and Ukrainian activists have reported that Russian officials are making home visits accompanied by armed soldiers in both provinces, detaining those who refuse to vote and pressuring them for “explanatory statements” to write that can be used. as a basis for criminal prosecution.
The Ukrainian military suggested in a statement on Sunday that Moscow could use the votes to identify men who could be recruited into the Russian army.
On Sunday, Russian election officials reported attempts to sabotage voting in occupied territories, where forces loyal to Kiev had previously shot pro-Moscow officials, blown up bridges and helped the Ukrainian military by identifying “key targets.”
Source: DN
