Russia concluded the regional and municipal elections on Sunday that delivered “strong results” for President Vladimir Putin amid speculations of vote rigging, attempts to sabotage booths, and Ukraine slamming the polls as ‘sham and illegal.’ The weeklong polls were a flagrant violation of international law, Europe’s leading rights group—the Council of Europe said in an official statement published Monday, September 11. The Kremlin’s statement, after the election wrap-up, claimed that the elections in the occupied regions of Ukraine were, in fact, “fair and free.”
Votes in the annexed regions ostentatiously portrayed Putin as the ‘leader of stability’ and his United Russia party as the dominating force for the civilians to elude Ukrainian atrocities. “Putin is by far the most popular politician in Russia,” said Kremlin, indicating that there was a strong and robust support for his leadership in the recent polls. Russian electoral officials flagged the covert attempts of sabotage during the voting-in by Russian guerilla forces who have routinely targetted the pro-Moscow officials, blown up the bridges and roads, and have secretly assisted the Ukrainian military by identifying key targets within Russia during the progressive counteroffensive in the eastern regions.
