The keys to the presidential elections in Russia

Russia celebrates from March 15 to 17 the eighth presidential elections in its history, elections in which the current head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putinseeks re-election for a fifth term:

Putin, favorite by acclamation

Putin, who came to power on December 31, 1999, has served four presidential terms with a four-year hiatus as prime minister (2008-2012).

Given the impossibility of serving more than two consecutive presidential terms, he reformed the Constitution in 2020, taking advantage of the confusion created by the coronavirus pandemic. He will now be able to run for re-election this Sunday and in 2030.

Putin, 71, is not only the big favorite for victory, but could achieve his biggest electoral victory with more than 80% of the votes, according to polls.

Soldiers and annexed without passports

More than 112 million Russians – 1.89 million abroad – are called to the polls. For the first time in the presidential elections, the inhabitants of the areas occupied by the Russian army in the four annexed regions (Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia) will vote.

According to the electoral census, there are about 4.5 million voters, who will be able to exercise the right to vote even if they do not have a Russian passport.

In addition, the more than 600,000 soldiers deployed in the area of ​​the so-called special military operation will also vote on Ukrainian territory.

No opposition or candidates for peace

In addition to Putin, only three candidates will run in the elections. The communist Nikolai Kharitonov, the ultranationalist Leonid Slutsky and the presumed liberal Vladislav Davankov, whose voting intention does not exceed the 6%.

The only opposition candidate, Boris Nadezhdin, was not registered, despite collecting twice the necessary signatures -100,000-, due to formal defects.

According to the independent press, the presidential administration vetoed Nadezhdin, known as the candidate for peace, for being the only candidate who opposed the war in Ukraine.

In the absence of Navalni

The elections will take place a month after the death of the Kremlin’s main enemy, Alexei Navalny, who died suddenly behind bars, for which the family, his co-religionists and the West directly accuse Putin.

The prison authorities sent him to a prison in the Arctic Circle after the Russian leader presented his candidacy and the opponent announced a campaign against the president’s re-election.

The opposition’s funeral in Moscow, attended by tens of thousands of people, became the most prominent event of the entire Russian election campaign.

One third of electronic voters

For the first time, a third of Russian voters – some 38 million – will be able to vote electronically.

Independent observers consider that electronic voting is, in reality, an instrument of official fraud due to the opacity of the count, as already happened in the 2021 municipal elections.

Added to this is the possibility of voting for three days, an option that the opposition to the Kremlin believes encourages the massive use of administrative resources to force Russians who work for the State to vote in favor of Putin.

No Western observers

Russia holds the elections behind the West’s back. The country has invited about 1,000 international observers, but none of the European organizations overseeing election cleanliness on the continent.

Moscow has not invited the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to which must be added the absence of observers from the Council of Europe, an organization to which Russia no longer belongs.

All of this raises the risk that the West will not recognize the results of these elections, in line with the calls made by the widows of Navalny and the former Russian spy Alexandr Litvinenko, murdered in 2006 in the United Kingdom by the Russian secret services.

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