From the Liveblog of
Friday, March 15, 2024
Polls open in Russian vote to extend Putin’s reign
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Russians start voting in a three-day presidential election that is set to hand veteran leader Vladimir Putin another six-year term as the raging conflict in Ukraine spreads further into Russian territory.
In power as president or prime minister since the final day of 1999, the former KGB agent is casting the election as a show of Russians’ loyalty and support for his military assault on Ukraine, now in its third year.
Polling stations in a country spread over 11 time zones opened at 8:00 am on the Far Eastern Kamchatka peninsula and will close Sunday at 8:00 pm in Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, wedged between EU members Poland and Lithuania.
Putin yesterday urged Russians to back him in the face of a “difficult period” for the country, in a pre-election message broadcast on state TV.
“We have already shown that we can be together, defending the freedom, sovereignty and security of Russia … Today it is critically important not to stray from this path,” he said.
With all of Putin’s major opponents dead, in prison or in exile, the outcome of the vote is not in any doubt.
A state-run pollster predicted earlier this week that Putin would secure more than 80 percent.
Victory will allow him to stay in power until 2030, longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the eighteenth century.
The Times of Israel Community.