Recount without closing polls, candidates in jail and interveners recruited: Putin consolidates his regional power amid allegations of fraud

The United Russia government party has obtained large majorities in the Russian regional elections, with at least 70% of the votes in the districts in which it ran.

Over the weekend, by-elections of State Duma deputies were held in four districts and voting for 16 regional parliaments, as well as elections of governors in more than 20 regions. In almost all places Putinism is still going strong, at least on paper.

Electoral competition was limited, as the authorities prevented strong candidates from running and control of the media is almost total.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, very close to Putin, won virtually unopposed. more than 75% of the votes, according to preliminary results. 10 years ago his rival was Alexei Navalny, who came second with 27% of the votes. Navalny is in jail today, like all the dissident leaders who did not escape in time.

The most critical sectors have pointed out that the elections in Moscow were easily manipulated due to the capital's electronic voting system, which according to them is impossible to audit.. Similar systems have been used in many other Russian regions.

The Golos entity, which ensures electoral cleanliness, has denounced in its reports the arrest of opposition candidates, destruction of their cars and, in one case, delivery of military recruitment documents to electoral auditors.

The first news about the preliminary results in the cold region of Yakutia appeared in the Russian agency RIA Novosti at 1:37 PM Moscow time, when it was only 7:37 PM in the region itself.. The polls were still open (they did not close until 8:00 p.m.) and the counting of votes had not yet been able to begin. The results of the vote in Yakutia were published prematurely because when entering the data for the already closed polling stations one of the system administrators mistakenly pressed the “publish” button, the Elections-Circus channel states, citing the Central Election Commission itself, which ensures that they finished voting before.

The Kremlin said that opinion polls and numerous election victories show that Putin is by far the most popular politician in Russia.

One of the few candidates outside the government party who has won is the current leader of the Khakassian Communist Party, Valentin Konovalov, who would obtain 63% of the votes after the recount of 52% of the votes.. Previously, the main candidate of United Russia there, Sergei Sokol, withdrew his candidacy due to health problems after verifying that the polls were adverse to him.. Sokol is a State Duma deputy and member of United Russia, and has served in Ukraine. Despite the support of the Kremlin and his theoretical status as a war veteran, the electorate turned its back on him.

According to independent Russian media, United Russia has had to reorient its campaign towards more domestic issues after verifying that the invasion of Ukraine is not such a popular demand 18 months later.. Despite everything, all the political forces that come together – others have been outlawed – support Russia's attack on Ukraine.. Campaign messages have overlooked the cost of the Ukraine conflict and instead have highlighted the aid that the Kremlin has provided to the families of soldiers.

The Kremlin candidates also won in all four occupied Ukrainian regions: Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.. Moscow declared them Russian last year in an annexation denounced by kyiv and its allies as illegal.. To this day, it does not control the entire territory in any of them. Only a handful of Moscow allies recognize these regions as part of Russia.. The US has warned that it will not recognize the elections in those areas.