Russians cast ballots in election preordained to extend Vladimir Putin’s rule : NPR

Russian President Vladimir Putin is poised to increase practically 1 / 4 century of rule for six extra years on Sunday after wrapping up an election that gave voters no actual options to an autocrat who has ruthlessly cracked down on dissent.

The three-day election that started Friday has taken place in a tightly managed atmosphere the place no public criticism of Putin or his conflict in Ukraine is allowed. Putin’s fiercest political foe, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic jail final month, and different critics are both in jail or in exile.

The 71-year-old Russian chief faces three token rivals from Kremlin-friendly events who’ve shunned any criticism of his 24-year rule or his full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years in the past. Putin has boasted of Russian battlefield successes within the run-up to the vote, however a large Ukrainian drone assault throughout Russia early Sunday despatched a reminder of challenges confronted by Moscow.

The Russian Protection Ministry reported downing 35 Ukrainian drones in a single day, together with 4 close to the Russian capital. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin mentioned there have been no casualties or injury.

Russia’s wartime economic system has confirmed resilient, increasing regardless of bruising Western sanctions. The Russian protection trade has served as a key progress engine, working across the clock to churn out missiles, tanks and ammunition.

Russia’s scattered opposition has urged these sad with Putin or the conflict to specific their protest by coming to the polls at midday on Sunday. The technique was endorsed by Navalny not lengthy earlier than his dying.

Voting is going down at polling stations throughout the huge nation’s 11 time zones, in illegally annexed areas of Ukraine, and on-line. Regardless of tight controls, a minimum of a half-dozen instances of vandalism at polling stations had been reported Friday and Saturday.

A 50-year-old college professor was imprisoned Saturday for 15 days after she tried to throw inexperienced liquid right into a poll field within the Urals metropolis of Ekaterinburg, native information website Ura.ru reported. In Podolsk, a city near Moscow, a lady was fined 30,000 rubles ($342) and charged with “discrediting the Russian military” after spoiling her poll with an unspecified message, based on OVD-Data, a police monitoring group.

Forward of the election, Putin forged his conflict in Ukraine, now in its third yr, as a life-or-death battle towards the West looking for to interrupt up Russia.

Putin has boasted about latest features in Ukraine, the place Russian troops have made gradual advances counting on their edge in firepower. Ukraine has fought again by intensifying cross-border shelling and raids, and by launching drone strikes deep inside Russia.

Air raid sirens sounded a number of occasions Saturday within the Russian border metropolis of Belgorod, the place two individuals had been killed by Ukrainian shelling, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov mentioned. Russia’s Protection Ministry mentioned it had thwarted makes an attempt to enter the nation by “Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance teams,” following claims by Ukraine-based Russian opponents of the Kremlin final week that they’d made an armed incursion into the Belgorod and Kursk areas.

Western leaders have derided the election as a travesty of democracy.

Past the dearth of choices for voters, the chances for impartial monitoring are very restricted. No vital worldwide observers had been current. Solely registered, Kremlin-approved candidates, or state-backed advisory our bodies, can assign observers to polling stations, lowering the probability of impartial watchdogs.