Moscow claimed, Sunday evening September 10, the victory of Vladimir Putin’s party in the elections organized in four annexed regions of Ukraine: Zaporijjia, Kherson, Donetsk and Lugansk, where fighting is still taking place. kyiv, like the international community, does not recognize the annexation of these regions and denounces a sham election.
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Russia’s Central Election Commission says President Putin’s United Russia party came out on top in these regional elections in the four territories annexed to Ukraine. He would have gleaned more than 70% of the votes during these elections spread over three days, in territories where fighting is still raging and where the Ukrainian army has launched a counter-offensive.
The President of the Electoral Commission, Ella Pamfilova, welcomed the elections which took place “ dynamically, with few violations “. With these elections and other referendums in the occupied territories of eastern and southern Ukraine, Moscow is trying to legitimize its annexations.
For the specialist Marie Mendras, professor at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, this ballot in the annexed territories has no other interest, for Vladimir Poutinethat of ” back up his totally insane story and his delusion of claiming that he returned to Russia areas that have been Ukrainian provinces for a very long time “.
” Dramatic pranks »
” It has absolutely no strategic importance in the conduct of the current war… (and) absolutely no impact on the other provinces of the Russian Federation. It simply has an additional effect of political terror, exerted by the Russian military and intelligence on civilian populations who have already been suffering terrible violence and insecurity for almost 19 months. », continues the political scientist at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Sciences Po.
These ” fake ballots » are only organized in areas controlled by the Kremlin. ” So we’re just talking about dramatic pranks under occupation, where people are forced to vote because they’ve been occupied. (…) It is not because the Russian dictatorship forced some of these adults in the occupied territories to surrender their Ukrainian identity card, to take a Russian identity document, that they have become Russian citizens or voters “, insists Marie Mendras.
The Russians also voted in these elections without suspense, in a context of muzzled opposition, where the voices critical of the Ukrainian conflict are repressed unceremoniously. Thousands of people have been sentenced, for a year and a half, to sometimes heavy sentences for having protested against the offensive in Ukraine. No real opposition is represented in this election, which comes a few months before a presidential election scheduled for early 2024 and which could consolidate Vladimir Putin in power until 2030.
(and with AFP)