The United Russia party will lead local elections in four Ukrainian regions that Russia annexed last year, according to a report by Russia’s Central Election Commission. The four regions are Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk. United Russia is President Vladimir Putin’s party. Sunday is the last day of voting. Not all votes have been counted yet.
Regional head elections are also held in Russia itself. Russia elected 21 governors, including the mayor of Moscow. The results of the vote in the capital are already known: incumbent mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Putin’s confidant, has been re-elected, according to the election commission.
Ukraine and its Western allies have been highly critical of “fake elections” in the occupied territories in recent days. However, Russia does not fully control the region and, according to Kyiv, it does not have the right to hold elections in the annexed Ukrainian territories.
In the last gubernatorial election in 2018, Putin’s United Russia lost to opposition candidates in four regions, but such a surprise now seems unlikely. Only in the small Siberian region of Khakassia does there appear to be a tight race between United Russia candidates and the current communist governor. But the man proposed by the Kremlin resigned last week, saying he did so for health reasons. (AP)
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