Leader of the Russian republic of Chechnya elected with almost 100% of the votes

Segund announced today the Central Election Commission (CEC), Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechen ally of Putin, obtained 99.85% of the votes, a record record.

Kadyrov, who came to power in 2007, and is accused of numerous human rights violations by international organizations, had obtained 99.7% of the votes five years ago.

The 0.05% of the votes that were not attributed to Kadyrov were allocated by Ismail Denilkhanov of the Just Russia party, and Khalid Nakayev of the Communists.

Since taking over the presidency of the North-Caucasian Republic, the Chechen leader has had the support of Putin, who awarded him the highest state honors.

The republic — where Kadyrov imposed a police state that pursues any sign of dissent and sexual minorities, according to human rights defenders — is widely subsidized by the coffers of the federal state.

According to the independent press, this is the Kremlin payment for the Chechen authorities having liquidated the separatist Islamic guerrilla group and sworn allegiance to the Kremlin.

The Kremlin sought the elections to serve to demonstrate popular support for war and endeavoured to avoid political risks, crushing any dissent, according to the AP.

The liberal Yabloko party, the only one who dared to publicly criticize the war, was removed from the bulletin in August by the Supreme Court of Russia.

The Yabloko presented only a few dozen candidates in uninominal circles.

Some anti-war politicians were arrested or forced to flee abroad before the election campaign.

Yabloko and the Communist Party, who criticized some aspects of government policy, but carefully avoided any criticism of Putin, said that many of his observers were prevented from entering the voting assemblies.

Russia has not invited observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to accuse the body of “double criteria” for criticism of Moscow.

The party supporting the Putin regime, United Russia (UK), revalidated the parliamentary majority with a record number of at least 355 of 450 Members, announced today the Russian electoral authorities.

The previous record was 343 deputies and had been reached by the UK in 2016, according to the French agency AFP.

The results of more than 95% of the voting assemblies attributed to the UK around 58% of the votes for the 225 seats distributed on party lists, according to the Central Election Commission.

Another 225 deputies were chosen in uninominal circles, and the results showed the party candidates attached to the Kremlin (presidency) to lead in 208 of these disputes, reported the North American agency AP.

The president of the Central Electoral Commission, Ella Pamfilova, said that preliminary results indicated that the UK should obtain at least 355 seats of the 450 that make up the Federal Duma, the lower chamber of the Federal Assembly.

The final results are scheduled for Friday.

The vote took place between Friday and Sunday, in those which were the first Russian legislatures since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

It was the first vote to include residents of four regions of Ukraine that were occupied and illegally annexed by Moscow at the end of 2022.

The vote also took place in Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Ukraine has denounced as illegal the vote in the five regions, whose sovereignty calls on Moscow with the support of Kyiv's Western allies.