In some parts of the country, the economic crisis developed by the coronavirus epidemic and mass protests, the main opposition figure Alexei Navalny is poisoning Russians in regional elections.
The elections are being held in Russia’s regions, where people are voting in four by-elections for regional governors and assemblies, as well as for national parliamentarians.
Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Alexandra Stojonovich-Godfrey said on Sunday that the vote had seen a drop in his rating for the United Russia party and President Vladimir Putin a year before the parliamentary elections.
United Russia, j It is currently dominated by the federal parliament and many regional administrations. The party is closely associated with Putin. President for a long time, although he is not a current member of any political party and will therefore be able to distance himself from the unusual steps initiated by secondary senior officials.
Last month, a nationwide poll by Russia’s largest independent voter, the Levada Center, showed that 29 percent of Russians would take part in anti-government protests if held in their area.
Tatyana Stanovaya, head of the R.Political Analysis Firm, said the results of the vote would help the Kremlin decide whether the United States needed to reform Russia and move ahead with parliamentary elections.
Stalnovaya told the AFP news agency that Navalny’s poisoning could have an impact on voters and “contradictory effects”.
Putt, a 44-year-old anti-corruption crusader who is one of Putin’s fiercest critics, fell ill on a flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20 and was taken to a hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk after the plane crashed. Emergency landing.
After he was moved to Berlin, German doctors said Navalny was poisoned by a Novichok nerve agent.
Its allies believe the use of banned chemical weapons shows that only the Russian state can be held responsible. The Kremlin has rejected any suggestion of blaming Russia.
‘Smart voting’
Led by Navalny, the opposition hopes to challenge the Kremlin’s dominance over Russia’s political life by promoting strategic voting, urging Russians to back the strongest candidate on the ballot to defeat the ruling party.
Navalny’s team urges Russians to vote for candidates from any party other than United Russia – Naval went to Siberia to promote so-called “smart voting” when she fell ill.
Referring to Russia’s four main political parties, Navalny’s team said in a statement on Friday that any other candidate – “a communist, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the Just Russia Party” – would be better than United Russia.
“Elections can be won,” it added, pointing to the far eastern city of Khabarovsk, where tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets since the arrest of a governor from the governing party in the last two years. .
Stalnovaya said that with Naval still recovering from the Russian political scene and absent, the “smart voting” campaign he launched could be undermined.
“On the other hand, I was shocked by what happened to the novel,” Stanovaya noted, noting that some of those who did not support him in the past may now change their minds.
Some observers believe the Kremlin’s move is another way to dampen opposition votes, with candidates also vying for four lesser-known new parties.
‘Unite Opponents’
With United Russia facing a deep crisis of popularity, the country is holding elections for more than three days for the first time and some polling stations will remain open.
Preliminary voting began on Friday and the main polling day is Sunday.
The controversial three-day voting plan was first tested on constitutional amendments during a July 1 national vote that would allow Putin to stay in power until 2036.
A high-profile campaign has been launched in Novosibirsk, where Sergei Boyko, Russia’s third-largest city, brought together protesters to confront the head of Navalny’s FIS, United Russia and the Communist Party.
His “Novosibirsk 2020” coalition has fielded about 30 candidates for the city assembly and has campaigned with the help of volunteers from Navali’s anti-corruption fund.
“This is an attempt to unite all those who are saying ‘no’ to the current regime,” Boiko told AFP.
Both the case of the former Barબરa Vov governor and the protests in Russia’s neighboring Belarus have led to small-scale demonstrations in solidarity in Russian cities, indicating that the likelihood of a protest vote is increasing.
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