This week's election in Russia is expected to cement President Vladimir Putin's grip on power until at least 2030.
This week's election in Russia is expected to cement President Vladimir Putin's grip on power until at least 2030.
Turnout in Russia’s 2018 presidential election was 67.5 per cent, although observers and individual voters reported widespread violations, including ballot-box stuffing and forced voting. Turnout in the 2021 parliamentary election was 51.7 per cent.Voting across the vast country will largely be carried out starting Friday and ending Sunday. It is the first time in a Russian presidential election that polls will be open for three days instead of one.
Others on the ballot were nominated by Kremlin-friendly parties represented in parliament: Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party, Leonid Slutsky of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, and Vladislav Davankov of the New People Party. Kharitonov ran against Putin in 2004, finishing a distant second.
Also not on the ballot are opposition figures who could have posed a challenge to Putin. They have been either imprisoned or fled the country. Russia's best-known opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, died in prison on Feb. 16 while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges. His attempt to run against Putin in 2018 was rejected.Observers have little hope the election will be free and fair.
But with no real alternatives to Putin on the ballot, the fractured and weakened opposition sees the election as a somewhat limited opportunity to demonstrate discontent with him and the war. W5 visited Richmound, Sask., to learn more about the self-described 'Queen of Canada,' who controversially moved to the rural village with her followers last year.
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