The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, exercised his right to vote via the internet this Friday in the legislative elections taking place in the Eurasian country. The date with the polls will last until Sunday and also includes the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia since the beginning of the invasion ordered by the president himself in February 2022.
"They will not make a mistake," Putin stated after completing the digital procedure using the Remote Electronic Voting system, according to the Russian newspaper 'Izvestia'. The Kremlin chief has been using this modality since 2021, including the presidential election in which he renewed his mandate in 2024.
The elections to renew the State Duma are taking place between this Friday and Sunday, with polling stations operating from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM (local time). More than 4,400 candidates have registered, with United Russia, Putin's party, presenting the largest number of candidates, around 400.
The voting is taking place amid ongoing conflict in Ukraine and under protests from Kiev over the inclusion in the census of residents in areas under Russian occupation. This is compounded by criticism from Western countries for the lack of democratic guarantees and real alternatives on the ballots, after the opposition party Yabloko was excluded from the contest due to its positions against the war.
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) accused the European Union (EU) and "prominent European countries" on August 31 of promoting a "large-scale strategy" aimed at "destabilizing" the internal situation before the legislative elections, in which the 450 seats of the State Duma are distributed.
In the same vein, Putin held Ukraine responsible this Friday for trying to hinder the holding of the elections. "Ukrainian leaders are not in a hurry to hold elections, but they are also trying to obstruct us," he stated during a meeting of the Russian Military-Industrial Commission.
The president has taken advantage of his intervention to intensify his verbal attacks against the Ukrainian Government, which he has described as a "bunch of corrupt people." "How can the current regime of Ukraine defend democracy when it has long degenerated into a dictatorship? (...) Power has been usurped by a bunch of corrupt people to remain in power without elections and to create even more conditions to steal from their own people and enrich themselves with the money of their sponsors, even from Europe," he added.