Russia’s Central Election Commission decided at its meeting on Thursday to hold local and municipal elections in the Luhansk and Donetsk republics and Zaporizhia and Kherson regions on the next unified polling day scheduled for September 10 this year. .
Russian news agency Tass quoted the head of the Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, as saying that the Russian Defense Ministry and the Federal Security Service had decided that the vote could take place in September.
What else?
Observers believe that this measure, which Kiev will reject, could fuel the fire of the war that has been raging for about a year and a half between Russia and Ukraine, in the absence of signs of solutions and diplomatic and peaceful initiatives. for the war that has exhausted the whole world, and its fragments have affected its food and energy security, as well as the warnings it could cause by dragging it into a devastating nuclear conflict.
While questions arise about its organization in the areas that Kyiv has recovered, as is the case, for example, of the strategic city of Kherson in the south of the country.
Rami Al-Qalyubi, a professor at the Moscow Higher School of Economics, said in an interview with Sky News Arabia:
After the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, it was immediately integrated into Russian political life, but it was different at the time with the republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, which Moscow supported that same year, but without officially recognizing their independence from Ukraine. . Russia practiced a kind of creeping annexation towards the two republics, because it facilitated, for example, the procedures for granting Russian citizenship to their residents and recognized the university certificates issued there, as well as the opening of markets Russians to their products. But last September, Russia moved from the stage of creeping annexation to full-fledged annexation, which included, in addition to the Donbass republics, the provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhia in southern Ukraine, and these four entities administrative units were included in the list of Russian federal entities in accordance with the constitution, and they became treated like the rest of Russian regions. Thus, it is covered by the unified voting day in the different regions and republics of the country, which includes the election of mayors, mayors and local councils in September of each year, and this participation of the four regions in this signifies its practical full and successful integration into Russian political life. The biggest problem is that these regions are constitutionally and politically part of Russia, but on the ground they are not completely under Russian control, such as in certain areas of Kherson province, which creates problems related to the organization of elections and the international legal framework. status of these regions.
In turn, Russian international relations researcher Lana Badfan said in an interview with Sky News Arabia:
This decision means that these regions have become completely Russian, and their inclusion in these elections shows that Moscow continues to perpetuate the reality of the annexation of these four regions to the Russian Federation. However, the elections, given the breakdown of war fronts, will undoubtedly take place in a difficult and dangerous security environment, which is not only limited to the four regions concerned, but also applies to certain other Russian regions. , such as the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, many of whose inhabitants have been displaced in border villages, in particular, following the bombardments. And the Ukrainian targets for it. However, it is clear that the Russians continue to organize these elections, which will be prepared and paved with security to try to ensure their smooth running, and that they are not affected as much as possible by the climate of war and its repercussions.
The four regions
The area of Ukrainian lands controlled and annexed by Russia is about 100,000 square kilometers, which is about 20% of the total area of Ukraine, and the population of these areas under Russian control varies between 5 and 7 million. . people, about 15 percent of the country’s total population.
Lugansk: Its area is more than 26.5 thousand square kilometers and its population is about two and a quarter million people. Donetsk: Its area is 26.5 thousand square kilometers and its population exceeds 4 million. Kherson: Its area is 28.5 thousand square kilometers and its population is about one million. Zaporizhya: Its area is 20,000 square kilometers and its population exceeds one and a half million.
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