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  • Wide Angle Vladimir Putin crosses another red line with the Novichok

The regional and local power of President Vladimir Putin's party is at stake in 41 of Russia's 85 regions.

Voters elect governors, regional deputies, councilors and four deputies for the national parliament in a vote that is a barometer for next year's legislative elections.

Opposition supporters have been the target of attacks, pressure and threats throughout the campaign

, which will deliver official results tomorrow.

The first data suggest that Putin's party retains regional and local control, but with advances by opposition forces in some places.

It is the first vote since the constitutional reform that allows the current Russian president to run again for office in 2024 despite having been in power for 20 years.

The extra-parliamentary opposition, led by Alexei Navalny, has tried to test its "smart vote" tactic, which consists of asking the best-placed candidate to vote in order to lose the government candidate.

This ruse worked last summer in Moscow, in the municipal elections, in which the ruling United Russia party lost many seats, mainly in favor of the communists, who were the unexpected beneficiaries of this strategy.

The elections come almost a month after Navalny was poisoned while on a tour of Siberia to support his opposition candidates and investigate the corruption of local elites.

He is hospitalized in Berlin and, although he has regained consciousness, he has not been able to intervene in the campaign.

Precisely in the Tomsk city hall, where the opposition leader was poisoned, the first data suggest that Navalny's candidate,

Ksenia Fadeeva

,

wins

in one of the most important districts.

Navalny's hosts knew that the attrition of United Russia left some cracks for the opposition to advance.

Especially in the elections for governor in Irkutsk and Arjangelsk, and in the municipal and regional elections in Komi, Novosibirsk, Tomsk and Magadan.

Although at the national level the charisma and control of Vladimir Putin's story lead to a very comfortable political debate for the Kremlin, Russian civil society is more active in its local problems.

In Irkutsk there is strong discontent over the lackluster response of the authorities to the floods

and the resignation of the former Communist Party governor after receiving pressure from Moscow.

In Arjangelsk the problem is a project to bring millions of tons of garbage to the Moscow province.

In Komi, the merger of the region with the Nenets Autonomous District causes controversy.

Anti-communist coalition

The place where the extra-parliamentary opposition Navalny has led was seen as having a real chance of success is the city of Novosibirsk, the third largest in the country.

There a coalition of anti-communist and anti-United Russia candidates has been launched.

At the head is one of the members of Alexei Navalny's team,

Serguei Boyko

, who has denounced attacks on his headquarters and attacks on his volunteers.

According to other preliminary data,

the advances of the so-called liberal opposition are modest in general

.

In Kamchatka, the Jewish Autonomous Region, Irkutsk and Perm the interim governors who were in their posts win it seems that they will repeat.

The authorities have authorized the elections to be held for three days, from Friday to Sunday, and sometimes with open-air voting centers, officially to limit the risks of the new coronavirus.

Golos, an independent election observer, warned that the longer period would make it more

difficult for observers to detect fraud

in polling stations.

During today's session, Golos denounced the "legal anarchy" in the polling stations in a single voting day.

Observers and members of the commissions reported that they are not allowed to enter the site or that their movements are restricted, that

they are prohibited from filming, and that they are denied access to documents and complaints

.

The observers also informed the Russian media 'Meduza' about the alleged replacement of early voting ballots in polling stations.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Alexei Navalny

  • Vladimir Putin

  • Russia

Wide Angle Vladimir Putin crosses another red line with the Novichok

RussiaLitvinenko, Yushenko, Skripal ... when poison is the message

Answer: Russia will investigate the Navalny poisoning, but as foreign interference

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