Russians vote in polls

KOSTROMA, Russia: Russians voted in local elections on Sunday expected to confirm the ruling party’s dominance despite a dogged campaign by the opposition in the one region it has been allowed to stand.
About 59 million are eligible to vote in a ballot that looks to be easily won by the United Russia party which supports President Vladimir Putin.
The main challenge to the Kremlin came in the sleepy city of Kostroma around 350 kilometres northeast of Moscow, where the RPR-Parnas liberal opposition coalition is fielding two candidates.
The opposition coalition includes the party of slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov and is fronted by Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption crusader and fearless Kremlin critic.
The coalition’s candidates have been disqualified from other regional polls in a move it calls politically motivated.
The polls are a key indicator of the public mood ahead of general elections next year and after economic hardships due to falling oil prices and sanctions linked to the Ukraine crisis.
Ilya Yashin, a top speaker at Moscow anti-government street protests and a close ally of Nemtsov, is one of the two candidates standing for a seat in the legislature for the Kostroma region.
The 32-year-old activist told AFP he was competing on an “uneven” playing field.
“United Russia has a monopoly on television and administrative resources,” Yashin said. “It counts on winning the elections through its domination of information and resources.”
The campaign in Kostroma has seen Yashin briefly detained by police, while one of the organisers was beaten up at a rally.
Yashin has only been able to campaign by speaking to locals, often senior citizens, in the courtyards of blocks of flats.
These meetings have been interrupted by the police, pugnacious pro-Kremlin youth groups and even a black man hired to pose as an American diplomat.
In Kostroma, dozens of voters, many of the elderly women, stood patiently in line to cast their ballots.
The RPR-Parnas coalition is standing with 15 other parties for the regional parliament, which the central electoral commission said was a record number for Russia.
“I know that Parnas [liberal opposition party] is running, the Americans are behind them,” 47-year-old Valentina Oleneva said, adding that she had voted for the Communist Party.
Lyudmila, a 57-year-old pensioner, reiterated the claim, condemning RPR-Parnas as a party “bought by the Americans.”
Although Moscow is not participating in the vote, 21 regions are electing new governors and 11 electing regional parliaments.
The elections come as the Kremlin struggles to tackle an economic crisis even though Putin’s personal approval ratings still soar at 83 percent.
“Their voters’ questions are not about politics but about their problems,” Yashin told AFP.
“They are about social policy, the increased utility prices, price hikes and the economic crisis.”
Experts say the vote has already been manipulated by the Kremlin, which has stopped opposition candidates from standing, or if they have managed to stand, has blocked them from access to the media.