Sasha Skochilenko's crime was to exchange supermarket price tags for anti-war messages. Oleg Tarasov was imprisoned because of the name he gave to his Wi-Fi network. Alexei Moskarev was found guilty of discrediting the Russian military for a drawing his 13-year-old daughter drew at school.
Vladimir Putin, 71, Russia's longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, is almost certain to win the country's eighth presidential election. Voting will take place from Friday to Sunday, and the winner will be inaugurated in May in a lavish ceremony at the Grand Kremlin Palace, former residence of the tsar and empress.
If, as most expect, Putin goes on to another six-year term, the former KGB official has held the office of president or prime minister of Russia since 1999, but opponents will argue that Putin will control every aspect of the country. They claim that this is because they have used this to weaken all threats. Because he has spent big bucks to achieve tight control over Russia's political system, and, well, the votes are rigged.
“This is not an election, it's a choice,” said Alena Popova, a Moscow-based human rights activist.
Popova did not win a seat in the 2021 parliamentary elections. She ran on a platform that placed women's rights and domestic violence at the center of her political campaign. Authorities said her feminist views were “extremist” and could lead to “the destruction of traditional values.” She was designated a “foreign agent,” the same quasi-legal classification as being called a spy or traitor.
Preparing to vote: See who's running for president and compare their positions on important issues with our voter guide
Popova called the vote for the Russian president into Stalin's “imaginary electoral process” when it was clear to many that it was Russian vote counters who decided everything, not Russian voters. ”.
“President Putin criminalizes the expression of any alternative opinion,” she said.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, he said:Putin's Ukraine plan appears to be similar to Trump's
Skochilenko, 33, an artist from St. Petersburg, replaced the labels on small supermarkets with messages such as “Russian troops bombed an art school in Mariupol (southeast Ukraine)'' and “My great-grandfather did not bomb.'' He was sentenced to seven years in prison for the crime. Russia fought World War II for four years to become a fascist state. ”
Tarasov, a 22-year-old university student, was sentenced to 10 days in prison for labeling his Wi-Fi network with the pro-Kiev slogan “Slava Ukraini!” (Glory to Ukraine), according to court records. It was.
Moskaryova's school, south of Moscow, reported her to the police after she drew a picture depicting a missile flying over a Russian flag towards a woman and child. A police investigation revealed that her father had criticized the Kremlin in social media posts. He was jailed for two years.
His daughter was sent to an orphanage.
“While the war continues and the current president is in power, there is little we can do to hasten her release,” Sonya Svovina said of her girlfriend Skochilenko.
“But I support her emotionally and tell her we will get through everything together.”
Why would President Putin bother to vote in the first place?
As part of Putin's crackdown on dissent, Russian authorities have enacted a number of laws in recent years restricting human rights, including freedom of speech and assembly, and the rights of minorities and religious groups. President Putin has made it illegal to call Russia's invasion of Ukraine a war.
Putin amended Russia's constitution in 2021, allowing him to rule until at least 2036 if he wishes. In another sign of the president's tight grip, he has allowed only a small number of hand-picked candidates who cooperate with his administration to run against him on this year's ballot.
Leonid Slutsky is an extreme nationalist member of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party. Nikolai Kharitonov will be the head of the Communist Party. National centrist Vladislav Davankov will participate from the New People's Party.
Alexei Navalny dies:What does it mean for Russia?
No one is against the war in Ukraine. All three, like President Putin, are on Western sanctions lists. No one has committed to bringing independent observers to polling places. All three support anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including bills that would decriminalize domestic violence and outlaw gender affirmation procedures.
The death last month of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, with his family and supporters believing he was murdered in prison, has left many pro-Putin opponents like him under mysterious circumstances for years. The deaths and serious injuries indicate that Mr. Putin may not be either. More than a state-sponsored assassination.
Find out how elections work in Russia.How long has Vladimir Putin been president?
The Kremlin denies involvement in these violent incidents.
Still: If Putin can effectively do what he wants in Russia, why bother voting?
Sam Green, a professor of Russian politics at King's College London who lived and worked in Moscow for many years, said Russia's elections were a “ritual” to ensure “everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.” He said that.
“Greetings from Putin's henchmen”:Alexei Navalny's entourage attacked with hammers and tear gas
He said Putin “doesn't want to risk telling Russians that their vote doesn't count, because Russians look around and realize that even if they don't, the majority of Russians “You have to be able to think – plausibly – that you support President Putin.”
Green said that because “authoritarian leaders tend to be brought down by elites rather than the streets,” the election was aimed at proving that Putin is a leader who “remains in control of the masses.” He also said that there is.
Marina Litvinenko, the widow of a former Russian spy who was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London in 2006, said the British government concluded that the killing was likely carried out on the direct orders of President Vladimir Putin. She said she's confident no matter what the vote says. She called it a “fake” system, but to Putin it is real.
“He lives in a false world of his own making,” she said, and the president accepts his government's lies as reality. “I think he really believes that. When someone in the West criticizes Putin, he gets very emotional. It's like people don't actually support Putin or that he's somehow playing by the rules. He'd be really disappointed if he heard that there wasn't.”
“We believe that change will come eventually.”
The exiled Russian rebels, now led by Mr Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya, are calling on Russians to turn up en masse at midday on Sunday and occupy polling stations as a sign of protest. called out.
Navalnaya said: “This is a very simple and safe action that cannot be banned. It helps millions of people get to know like-minded people and realize that they are not alone. Probably.'' “All around us are people who oppose war, corruption, and illegality.”
According to reports, several people were detained at polling stations on Friday on charges of damaging property. A woman was caught on video throwing a petrol bomb at a polling station near St. Petersburg. In other photos, green paint was seen being poured into ballot boxes at various polling stations in Moscow.
However, in Putin's Russia, expressing even a small dissenting opinion is easier said than done.
After the death of Alexei Navalny:Biden sanctions 500 Russian targets
Since President Vladimir Putin ordered the military to invade Ukraine more than two years ago, various anti-war protests and demonstrations have taken place across Russia, often with brutal acts, according to OVD-Info, an independent human rights group based in Moscow. Approximately 20,000 people have been detained. An information service that focuses on political persecution in Russia and provides legal advice to imprisoned people.
Navalny was Russia's most high-profile political prisoner. But there are more than 500 more in Russian penal colonies, according to the U.S. State Department. They face the harsh reality of physical and psychological pressure, lack of sleep, inadequate food, poor medical care, and a dizzying array of arbitrary rules.
Authorities shut down or blocked independent media outlets and banned books by best-selling authors who espoused antiwar views. Independent artists are subject to harassment through forced raids.
After Navalny's death, Russian security services moved quickly to eliminate any signs of mass gatherings or criticism. Approximately 400 people were detained by Russian police as they tried to lay flowers and hold a wake for Navalny, including on the day of his funeral.
Ksenia Maximova said: “I don't think it's necessarily a good idea to ask people to take to the streets because the police are heavily armed.If there were to be large-scale protests, people would be shot at.'' That's for sure,” he said. He is a Moscow-born opposition activist who heads the London-based Russian Democratic Association.
Ms. Maximova said she had heard from Russian sources that the National Guard, which received special training under President Vladimir Putin, took part in combat-style exercises ahead of the election.
“We understand that democratic forces in Russia are not strong enough to overthrow President Putin,” said Vladimir Ashurkov, a friend of Navalny who helped found the anti-corruption foundation.
“But we believe that democratic change will come eventually.”
“Semi-martial law state”
Russia's Central Election Commission announced that there are approximately 112 million voters in Russia and the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. Another 1.9 million voters live overseas.
Callum Fraser, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London, said Russia's elections could be the “most fraudulent” in the country's history.
Mr. Fraser believes that in order for President Putin to perceive that his mission is clear and persuasive in the face of serious voter apathy, he needs to achieve a high approval rating and turnout of approximately 80%. He said it was necessary to secure it. He said that like in most authoritarian countries, voter turnout in Russia is “extremely low”, typically between 40% and 60%.
“Authoritarians have a hard time showing that they have the mandate of the people,” Fraser said.
Europe is 'very impatient':New ambassador warns of $60 billion in delayed aid to Ukraine
One Russian who won't give his mandate to Putin or anyone else is Boris Vishnevsky, a veteran liberal politician from St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city. Vishnevsky said he intended to deliberately spoil the ballot by writing the word “peace” with an exclamation point in front of Putin's name on the ballot.
“We're under quasi-martial law, so the outcome of the election is completely predictable,” he told USA TODAY.
The other is Lev Schlossberg, deputy leader of Mr. Navalny's party, the social-liberal Yabloko party, who was then expelled in 2007 for his “nationalist views” and racist and xenophobic comments. It's Mr.
Schlossberg plans to cross out everyone's name on the ballot.
“There is opposition in Russia, but it's not political, it's moral opposition,” said Elena Panfilova, who founded the Russian branch of Transparency International, an organization that tracks and fights corruption.
Ms. Panfilova lives in Moscow.
“It's not a collective opposition, it's an individual opposition. It's deep in people's hearts,” she said. “Not with the clowns in power.”
“The one thing I can say about elections in my country is that I don't believe in their integrity,” said Svovina, whose girlfriend Skochilenko was imprisoned for seven years in a penal colony for replacing supermarket labels with anti-war messages. Only,” he said. And I am very concerned that the crackdown will be strengthened after that. ”
Contributor: Anna Nemtsova
