Russia’s polling stations opened – no opponents to Putin

The winner of the election is Putin. Agreed experts dare to state that – despite the fact that it will not be formally decided until Sunday.

– It is not a question of an election between people, but how much Putin can shake the life of his electorate to give the semblance of legitimacy to his power, says Russia expert Malcolm Dixelius in TV4’s Nyhetsmorgon.

Polling stations have opened in Moscow and around the country. Voting will be done electronically for the first time, all to increase voter turnout. Voting rooms have been set up in hospitals and other facilities. They even have ballot boxes that go around to hard-to-reach environments, including to polar stations.

– Voting is done everywhere there is an opportunity to vote.

A moment of tension

The Kremlin has approved three “opponents” to Vladimir Putin in this year’s elections. All of them are in favor of the war in Ukraine and, according to Malcolm Dixelius, together they are expected to garner between ten and fifteen percent of the votes. He says many will vote reluctantly.

– The group that actively supports Putin and the war in Ukraine is small.

According to him, there is an element of tension in the presidential election. When Alexei Navalny was alive, he urged as many people as possible to gather in a so-called “flash mob” at the polling stations. His widow Yuliya Navalnaya has taken up that call.

– On the one hand, we don’t know how many people are willing to do it. On the other hand, we know that the security services have taken countermeasures, he says.

“It’s creepy”

Among other things, they will use facial recognition to identify any protesters. In Putin’s Russia, increasingly long sentences have been awarded even to banal protests. One person was recently jailed for seven years after placing small Ukrainian flags in a grocery store, and at least 116,000 people are believed to have been jailed since 2018.

– It’s eerie, says Malcolm Dixelius and continues:

– It has never been close to that in modern times. We have to go back to the days of Stalin for a comparison. In Stalin’s time there were summary executions. It’s not now but there are also people dying and people serving long prison terms

There is no talk of a united opposition in the country. Putin’s political opponents have been revealed. The most well-known, Alexei Navalny, died under unclear circumstances in prison earlier this year. Others are imprisoned or have been forced into exile.

And now Putin looks set for another year in power – made possible by his own legislative changes.

– It is a cowed nation. People do as they are told under threat, says Malcolm Dixelius.