Experts of the National Resistance Center have prepared an analytical report, “Pseudo-elections of the “President” of the Russian Federation in the TOT of Ukraine in February-March 2024”.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Kremlin has held many events aimed at imitating the expression of will: a pseudo-referendum in September 2022 and pseudo-elections to “local administrations” in September 2023.
These events were preparatory to imitating the “presidential elections” of the Russian Federation in the TOT, as the Kremlin dictator’s essential requirement is that the processes in the territories he seized take place in sync with the all-Russian ones.
This is an integral part of their strategy to legitimize their control over the occupied territories, both for the domestic public and the international community. The main task of the “elections” in the TOT was to create a picture of high turnout and overwhelming support for the Kremlin dictator Putin, and thus support for the occupation by the local population.
The review highlights Russia’s systematic violations of human rights, the lack of any legitimacy of the “expression of will”, and the coercive nature of such “voting”:
Earlier, analysts of the National Resistance Center presented the study “The Situation in the Temporarily Occupied Territories. Results of 2023”.
