Russians Vote to Give Putin Another Mandate

Date: 18 March 2018 - 21:46

News ID: ۵۱۳۱۸

UST-DJEGUTA, Russia (Dispatches) -- Russians voted in a presidential election Sunday that was expected to give Vladimir Putin an easy victory.
Opinion polls give Putin, the incumbent, support of around 70%, or nearly 10 times the backing of his nearest challenger.
Many voters credit Putin, a 65-year-old former KGB spy, with standing up for Russia's interests in what they view as a hostile outside world.
Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, alleged Kremlin meddling in the U.S. presidential election, and Moscow's bombing of terrorists in Syria, have been condemned in the West. But for most people at home, they have only burnished Putin's reputation as a strong leader.
A row with Britain over allegations the Kremlin used a nerve toxin to poison a Russian double agent in a sleepy English city - denied by Moscow - has not dented Putin's standing.
"I voted for Putin," Lyubov Kachan said, a teacher in the settlement of Ust-Djeguta, in southern Russia. "If anything is not going our way right now, that's thanks to the world which treats us so negatively, while he is trying to stand up to that," she said.
The only real headache for Putin's campaign was the possibility many voters, including Putin supporters, would not bother to come to the polls because they felt the outcome was already a foregone conclusion.
A day of voting across Russia's 11 time zones began at 2000 GMT on Saturday on Russia's eastern edge, in the Pacific coast city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Voting was to run until polls close at the westernmost point of Russia, the Kaliningrad region on the Baltic Sea, at 1800 GMT on Sunday.
Many Russians believe Putin has restored stability after the chaos that ensued after the Soviet Union collapsed.
A March 9 survey by state-run pollster VTsIOM gave Putin, who was first elected president in 2000, support of 69%. His nearest rival Pavel Grudinin, the Communist Party's candidate, was on just seven percent.
Ella Pamfilova, head of the commission organizing the vote nationwide, has said any fraud will be stamped out. She said those already alleging the election was rigged were biased and peddling "Russophobia".