Drones, tension and votes in sight in Russia in the elections without Putin's rival

The presidential elections started this Friday in Russia with widespread distrust in the West about the reliability of the result. The elections, without real opposition, without international observers and with the opaque electronic voting system for the first time in a presidential election, will perpetuate Vladimir Putin in power at least until 2030. The voting process, which will last until this Sunday, has with 4.7 million potential online voters, of which two million are estimated to have already deposited their electronic ballot. One of them has been Putin himself from the computer in his office at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence, on the outskirts of Moscow. Taking into account the entire vote—in the ballot box and online—the authorities estimate that 35% of the more than 112 million voters have already cast it.

One of the biggest disruptions of the day was recorded in Belgorod, just 80 kilometers from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and where voting day began with the wailing of sirens. At least one person died in a wave of attacks attributed to Ukraine and anti-aircraft fire “never seen in these years of war,” according to several residents of the Russian town. In this context, its inhabitants could only think about the Ukrainian attacks. “You can’t imagine how heated things have become here,” said Evguenia, a woman in her 40s who lives in the city of Belgorod, on Thursday night. The woman was a sea of doubts. “I don’t dare leave the house. I don’t know what to do, leave or not. When will this end?,” she lamented in a phone conversation.

Faced with the agitation in Belgorod, there was a truce in the neighboring city of Kursk, also attacked these days. “Let’s knock on wood,” they exclaimed there, at School Number 4 on Dmítrova Street, while an incessant trickle of people, almost all of them older people, voted throughout the morning. “I am with my president, Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin),” was a phrase repeated by several of the voters. Kursk (434,000 inhabitants) is one of the 28 Russian administrative entities where controversial online voting has been enabled. According to the calculations of one of the colleges, around 10% of its 773 registered voters will opt for this option. Added to them are another twenty people who, due to mobility problems, will receive a visit from a portable urn at home.

According to the independent organization Golos, extending these elections for several days makes it easier for the Administration and many companies to put pressure on their employees to use the opaque online vote, about whose confidentiality there are doubts, or go to the polls this working Friday.

The spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitri Peskov, avoided responding to the attacks in the border area and delegated this issue to the Russian Ministry of Defense, questioned by the entry of kyiv’s drones into its territory. This Friday, another refinery in the Kaluga region, south of Moscow, joined the list of Russian energy facilities hit by drones in recent days.

On a day with strong security measures, several people were arrested for pouring liquids, including ink, into ballot boxes. The Central Election Commission indicated that all the “attackers” were arrested and that a criminal case will be opened against them. According to authorities, at least five voting centers located in Moscow, Voronezh and Rostov recorded incidents of this type. In addition, the opposition Civic Initiative party and its candidate, Boris Nadezhdin, banned from the elections, were victims of incidents. Its headquarters in Kazan was attacked by observers from the Public Chamber, a civil consultation body, and a volunteer was detained in Khanty-Mansiisk province while conducting a survey outside the polling station.

Russian President Vladimir Putin votes in an office at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence, near Moscow, this Friday. MIKHAIL METZEL/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN P (EFE)

Instead, calm reigns at the entrance to the Kursk school, guarded by several police officers. At first glance, they seem like a normal election. In the hall, a screen shows the photos of the four presidential candidates with their resumes and the assets they have declared. The candidates of the Communist Party, the Liberal-Democratic Party and New People present endless texts. The profile of candidate Putin, however, is summarized in a few lines and highlights that he is “president of the Russian Federation”; Behind the figure of President Putin is magnified in a mural with the slogan “Russia, our great power!”, another photo of the Russian leader and a map and the country’s flag.

The electoral college is divided into two voting points, numbers 125 and 126. In each of them there is a screen where voters can mark their candidate with a cross on a huge ballot. However, unlike in Spain, it is deposited in a glass ballot box without any envelope to cover the election. In fact, with simple backlighting it is possible to see the vote marked on the other side of the paper.

“Our ballot boxes are transparent so that you can check which ballots there are. If the voter does not want his vote to be seen, he can fold the ballot,” the head of the electoral commission at that college, Roman Filippov, explains to this newspaper. In this electoral college there are only observers from United Russia, the party that is nominating Putin as president, although they expect the presence of representatives from other official parties one of the three days that the elections last.

Almost all observers of Russia’s first match refuse to speak, except for one young woman, Galina Ivanovna, who joined the formation out of tradition. “I just turned 18 years old. We have the habit of going to the elections together as a family,” she says.

Unlike Spain, where polling station members are chosen randomly through a draw, Russian electoral committees are made up entirely of volunteers, most of them nominated by the parties and who can be vetoed.

The start of the elections coincides with the complaint of an independent Russian media, Siren, that some polling stations in the Kursk region use pens with ink that can disappear with the heat of a lighter. “I can’t speak out, it doesn’t happen here. Maybe it is some kind of provocation,” responds the person in charge of the electoral college. “At the moment everything is going well, without incidents,” he adds.

After casting their ballots, voters receive a certificate in which the authorities thank them for having participated despite the tension experienced with drones. Unlike other regions – Moscow has a program of “a million rewards” for going to vote, including discounts on shows – in Kursk they assure that there is no compensation.

Open support for the president

It is working hours and practically everyone who goes to the polls is older, although in many regions it is common for Administration personnel and some companies to also receive permission—they are instigated—to go to vote. Here the support for Putin is resounding. “Why hide it? “I voted for Vladimir Putin, a great president,” declared Alexánder, a pensioner from School Number 4, upon leaving the poll. “I was sure that he would show up and go to the end.” [en la guerra contra Ucrania]”, he adds with a smile.

The Ukrainian attacks these days are something new for Kursk, but for Alexander the culprit is clear and it is kyiv. “We are perfectly fine, we are not afraid. It is necessary to respond to Zelensky’s drug addict,” he adds.

An older couple also comes to vote, but refuses to comment on the Russian leader. “They are not a special election, but Russians have to be seen and vote. “Each Russian makes his choice, who he wants in power, that is an absolutely personal matter,” the man states.

In any case, only people loyal to Putin speak openly in these elections. “They are not a special election,” says Anna, a middle-aged woman whose daughter, now a journalist for a Kremlin channel, studied at the aforementioned electoral college. “I think we should support our president,” she says. When asked about the attacks experienced these days, she responds like many other Russians that only the Kremlin can have answers because citizens do not participate in politics. “To do? As a citizen I can’t say if something is bad. I only admire my president and we have to support him,” she points out before resorting to a saying: “In Russia we usually say that we don’t change horses mid-crossing.”