Illegitimate local elections in Russian-occupied Crimea concluded on September 8. The voting, which was denounced by Ukraine and not recognized by most countries of the world, will most likely solidify the local elites’ grip on power on the illegally annexed peninsula.
From September 6-8, voters in Russia were casting ballots for governors and regional legislators in 83 regions and cities. Incumbents and other loyalists of President Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party were expected to win the tightly controlled elections, which lacked genuine political competition after years of harsh repression of dissent that has only intensified since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The situation was no different in the illegally occupied territories in Ukraine, including Crimea where seats in the Russia-imposed Crimean parliament, the municipal legislature of the port city of Sevastopol, and local councils were being decided.
Unlike in 2014 and 2019, this time the polling in Crimea took part against the ever-present background of full-scale war.
"The peculiarity of these ‘elections’ is that they are taking place under the conditions of war, which Crimeans are now feeling in their homes: mobilization, coffins, explosions and fires, trenches on the beaches and seaside promenades,” Crimean political scientist Yevhenia Horyunova told RFE/RL. “All this could have affected the election results if there were [real] elections in Russia. But for many years now, this has only been an imitation, a certain ritual of legitimization of the leader and the party of power.”
According to official Russian data, there are about 1.5 million voters in Crimea. The number includes Ukrainian citizens who were forcibly issued Russian passports after 2014, and the hundreds of thousands of Russians who moved to the peninsula over the last 10 years.
They could cast their votes at some 1,300 traditional polling stations or 150 mobile polling stations, as well as through an online voting service. Four polling stations were created for Russian servicemen near the front line.
According to experts, it is practically impossible to control the election process online or at mobile polling stations, which gives authorities wide scope for falsification.
'Strengthening The Clannishness'
In the city of Sevastopol, which hosts multiple military facilities that are regularly targeted by Ukrainian air attacks, including the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, polling stations were equipped with bomb shelters and the voting started back on August 28 due to what the city's occupation governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, explained as “security concerns.”
The governmental Ukrainian Center for National Resistance said that early, mobile, and online voting both facilitate fraud and conceal low turnout. In a report, the organization says that the Russian occupation authorities are artificially boosting the turnout with the help of the security forces and by using people displaced from occupied territories on mainland Ukraine who are temporarily living in Crimea.
Crimean electoral legislation was amended in May to effectively prevent would-be competitors from running. Overall, big changes were not expected with Putin backing Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-appointed head of Ukraine's occupied Crimea, who was seeking another five-year term.
“The regional elite does not even have to make an effort to stay in power. It will have the necessary majority anyway. Relatives, business partners, and friends are included on the election lists to further strengthen the clannishness that has become an integral attribute of Crimean reality since 2014," Horyunova said.
The war had a limited impact on the selection of candidates for regional and local administrative bodies. Back in the spring, Putin’s ruling United Russia party planned to nominate many “heroes of the special military operation,” that is veterans of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, for posts in the elections.
'Obedient Cogs'
In most regions, including in the occupied territories, veterans lost in party primaries. One of the rare cases in which servicemen passed the selection process was Sevastopol.
“Most likely, some of them will be elected to once again bolster the myth of the city of ‘Russian military glory.’ But they will only be obedient cogs -- voting in the interests of United Russia and the governor,” Horyunova said.
According to Ukrainian political analyst Yevhen Savisko, Russia’s leadership was determined to ensure the voting in Crimea was held on time and without serious incidents.
“First, Putin needs to show the world that no one in temporarily occupied Crimea wants to return it to Ukraine. Second, he needs to reassure his officials and local traitors: you won’t be left behind as long as you quietly work for Moscow. And third, there is a message to people in provincial Russia: Look how strong we are,” he told RFE/RL.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has denounced the voting in occupied Crimea, noting that the procedure is a violation of international law.
“We emphasize once again that the results of the so-called ‘elections’ in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea…are worthless, and the ‘elections’ themselves are illegitimate,” the ministry wrote.
The ministry added that those involved in “the preparation and holding of the so-called ‘elections’” will be prosecuted.
