MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin's party was set to
retain a majority in parliament as Russia on Sunday wrapped up a three-day
election in which most Kremlin critics were barred from running.
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The vote comes in the wake of an unprecedented crackdown on
the opposition this year, with Russian authorities jailing Putin's best-known
domestic foe Alexei Navalny and banning his organizations as
"extremist".
In the lead-up to this weekend's vote, all of his top allies
were arrested or had fled the country, with anyone associated with his groups
kept from running in the parliamentary and local polls scheduled to close at
8:00pm in each of Russia's 11 time zones. Polling stations in the exclave of
Kaliningrad will be the last to close at 6pm GMT.
"There is no one to vote for," Andrei, a
33-year-old IT professional who declined to give his last name, told AFP in
Moscow.
But he cast his ballot in the "sham"
elections, he
said, to "at least show some kind of protest against the current
government".
As voting kicked off Friday, Apple and Google caused an
uproar among Russia's opposition after they removed Navalny's "Smart
Voting" app, which advised supporters which candidate they should back to
unseat Kremlin-aligned politicians.
Sources familiar with Google and Apple's decision told AFP
the move was taken under pressure from Russian authorities, including threats
to arrest the tech giants' local staff.
Kremlin 'blackmail'
By late Friday, the popular Telegram messenger had also
removed Navalny's "Smart Voting" bot, and by Sunday Google Docs and
YouTube videos containing the lists of the recommended candidates had also been
blocked.
Navalny's allies said that Google had complied with demands
made by Russia's media regulator Roskomnadzor, with Leonid Volkov describing US
tech giants as having "caved in to the Kremlin's blackmail".
But Navalny's team promptly made new Google Docs and YouTube
videos with the lists of candidates, and in a final pitch to voters from behind
bars, the Kremlin critic wrote on Instagram: "Today is a day when your
voice truly matters."
Turnout was at 40 percent as of Sunday afternoon, according
to Russia's elections commission.
Russian social media meanwhile was inundated with reports of
ballot stuffing and military servicemen patrolling polling stations.
Critics also pointed to online voting, new limits on
independent election observers and the polls being spread over three days as
presenting opportunities for mass voting fraud.
No one to trust but Putin
As of Sunday afternoon, independent election monitor Golos —
which authorities branded a "foreign agent" ahead of the polls — had
tracked close to 4,000 reports of voting violations.
Elections chief Ella Pamfilova said her commission had
received 137 reports of voting "coercion" and confirmed eight cases
of ballot stuffing, with three polling station heads fired as a result.
Pamfilova also said the commission's website was under
"powerful" cyberattacks, adding that the majority were coming from
the United States and Germany.
Going into the lower house State Duma vote, Putin's United
Russia party was polling at historic lows.
Surveys by state-run pollster VTsIOM showed fewer than 30
percent of Russians planning to vote for the party, down at least 10 percentage
points ahead of the last parliamentary election in 2016.
While 68-year-old Putin remains popular, United Russia has
seen its support drop as living standards decline following years of economic
stagnation.
But the ruling party is expected to keep its two-thirds
majority in the lower house, allowing it to push through legislative changes
without resistance.
In addition to United Russia, 13 more parties are running in
the elections. They, however, are widely seen as token opposition doing the
Kremlin's bidding.
Anna Kartashova, a 50-year-old pharmaceutical company
manager in Moscow, said she voted for United Russia because she "simply
trusts" Putin.
"We just don't see anyone else we can trust in the
current political landscape," she said.
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