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 —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS