Three days of voting begin in Russia and occupied regions of Ukraine amid claims Russia repelled attempt to land Ukrainian troops in Belgorod
Reuters notes that more than 114 million Russians are eligible to vote, including in what Moscow prefers to call its “new territories” – the four regions of Ukraine that it has claimed to annexed but which its forces only partly control. Ukraine says the staging of elections there is illegal.
As a reminder, Vladimir Putin is not the only candidate. He is running against Communist Nikolai Kharitonov, Leonid Slutsky, leader of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, and Vladislav Davankov of the New People party.
