Russians voted yesterday in parliamentary elections set to hand Russian President Vladimir Putin's party a crushing victory and help him retain power after leaving office, amid allegations of rigging.
Polling stations opened in a wave across the world's biggest country, from the Pacific to the Baltic.
Turnout was brisk, the Central Election Commission said, despite voters having to brave icy temperatures.
PHOTO: AFP
"I voted for United Russia. Life's got better under Putin," said Mohammed Egemberdiyev, a 43-year-old plumber after casting his ballot at a polling station in central Moscow.
The election followed a campaign marred by accusations that the Kremlin rigged the contest with controversial new election laws and media bias to ensure victory for Putin's ruling United Russia party.
The main monitoring body of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe boycotted the polls, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the White House expressed doubt over the vote's fairness.
Eleven parties participated but opinion polls predicted United Russia would secure at least two-thirds of seats in the 450-seat State Duma, with the Communists a distant second and other votes divided between Kremlin-friendly parties.
For the first time since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, pro-Western liberal candidates were forecast to be excluded from parliament.
Putin, who is required by the Constitution to step down next year after two Kremlin terms, heads United Russia's candidate list.
He said victory yesterday would give him a "moral" mandate in the future, fueling speculation that he intends to retain power.
In a pre-election speech Putin warned Russians to vote for United Russia or risk the "disintegration" of their country.
Casting his ballot at polling station 2074 in southwest Moscow, Putin simply called on Russians to back "those people that you can trust."
Huge revenues from energy exports, steadily rising living standards and a restored sense of national pride after the post-Soviet collapse have made the ex-KGB agent widely popular.
"United Russia have done a good job, everything is getting better," said Vladimir Babikov, a 19-year-old navy conscript fighting to keep warm in the biting breeze as he voted near Vladivostok harbor.
The increasingly beleaguered opposition, ranging from liberals to the Communists, charges the Kremlin with suppressing debate, dominating state television, confiscating election leaflets and arresting activists.
The Kremlin has insisted that the elections will be free and fair.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats