2024-02-25T18:37:23+00:00
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/ Early voting in Russia’s presidential election began on Sunday in remote areas of the country, where authorities had to send helicopters and vehicles to collect votes from reindeer herders and others in Siberia, in a vote that is certain to give President Vladimir Putin a new term.
Elections will be held in the rest of Russia in mid-March, according to Alhurra.
Russia’s election commission said its officials used “helicopters, four-wheel drive vehicles and other off-road vehicles” to reach remote areas of Siberia to set up voting stations for a handful of voters.
In the Khabarovsk region in the far east, officials flew by helicopter to the remote Kor weather station to collect the votes of two people who work there.
The Kremlin is seeking to secure a high turnout, to show that Russian society is united behind Putin and the attack on Ukraine.
In the Siberian Arctic republic of Sakha, election officials said they traveled five hours in off-road vehicles to reach a tribal community on Bolshoi Begichev Island in the Laptev Sea.
“The head of the family was happy to see the guests,” they said on social media, “four voters voted.” They posted photos of hundreds of reindeer in the snow.
Putin has been in power since December 31, 1999.