Ukraine and its allies say Russian vote was an illegal attempt to tighten Moscow’s grip over Ukraine’s south and east regions
The overwhelming vote across Russia and in the annexed regions for the dominance of Putin’s United Russia party has delivered on the Kremlin’s long-repeated domestic message that Putin is by far the strongest guarantor of stability.
Stanislav Andreychuk, co-chair of Golos, a voter rights’ group designated a “foreign agent” by the Russian government, said instances of vote rigging in many parts of the country showed that “these are not real elections.” Kremlin critics have said that elections in Moscow are easily rigged due to the capital’s system of electronic voting, which they say is impossible to audit. Similar systems have been rolled out in many other Russian regions.
“It is … totally unacceptable for Russia to conduct such ‘elections’ in these regions on the basis of such an illegal ‘annexation’,” Japan’s foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said in statement over the weekend.According to Russian officials, United Russia received large majorities in the regions, taking at least 70% of the vote in each. Detailed voting figures were not immediately released.