Latest / Best of: Features / Russia holds parliamentary vote in areas it seized from Ukraine in the war

Transcript

Russia holds parliamentary vote in areas it seized from Ukraine in the war · Best of: Features

• 0:05
  Russia’s holds parliamentary vote in areas it seized from Ukraine in the
• 0:09
  war. This article is being read by an automated voice, generated by
• 0:13
  Everlet. Russia's parliamentary election for the first time includes residents
• 0:19
  of regions that Moscow illegal, annexed from Ukraine after the start of
• 0:23
  its full scale invasion more than four and a half years ago,
• 0:26
  part of Kremlin efforts to cement its gains. Officials in Kyiv vigorously
• 0:32
  denounced the action as illegal, and a human rights activist described residents
• 0:36
  there as being coerced to participate in the election. While the vote
• 0:41
  across Russia started Friday and lasts until Sunday to help boost turnout,
• 0:45
  balloting actually has been underway in the annexed parts of Ukraine and
• 0:49
  some areas on the Russian side of the border since They end
• 0:52
  of last month. Officials cited security reasons for the extended period. Russian
• 0:57
  authorities say the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporežia territories, often referred to
• 1:03
  by Moscow officials as the new region, have over three point five
• 1:07
  million voters. They were annexed by Russia in September twenty twenty two.
• 1:11
  Despite not fully being under Moscow's control, the bouv has not been
• 1:15
  recognized internationally. At one polling station in the Russian held part of
• 1:19
  the Donetsk region, voters dropped their ballots in a box as an
• 1:23
  armed Russian soldier stood nearby and watched. Putin stressed the importance of
• 1:28
  voting in the regions. In a speech Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin
• 1:34
  emphasized the importance of ballot balloting in those regions for the
• 1:37
  State Duma the lower House of Parliament. Residents there will be voting
• 1:41
  for the Duma for the first time since their reunification with Russia.
• 1:46
  He noted that Russian soldiers involved in the fighting also will vote.
• 1:50
  Voting also is taking place in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that
• 1:54
  was illegally annexed by Moscow in twenty fourteen. The first wartime election
• 1:59
  to the State Duma is intended to secure the Kremlin's political dominance
• 2:03
  and showcase public support for the war. Your choice and resolve will
• 2:08
  once again demonstrate that millions of people stand behind our fighters, that
• 2:12
  we are a united people bound by shared values, historical memory and
• 2:16
  love for the motherland, and that nobody can divide or intimidate us
• 2:20
  undermine our statehood and political system, Putin said. Ukraine urges other countries
• 2:26
  not to recognize the vote, but Authorities in Kyiv called the voting
• 2:30
  in those territories illegal, and urged foreign governments and international organizations not
• 2:35
  to recognize the election. They warned Ukrainians that taking part in organizing
• 2:40
  the vote could carry criminal liability. A coalition of nine Ukrainian human
• 2:45
  rights groups called on residents of the Russia held territories to stay
• 2:49
  away from the polls. We urge residents of the temporarily occupied territories,
• 2:55
  above all, to protect their lives and health and to look after
• 2:58
  their own safety, the coalition said in a statement. Holding Russian elections
• 3:02
  in the temporarily occupied territories is an attempt to use the electoral
• 3:07
  process to legitimize the Russian occupation and the attempted annexation of Ukrainian
• 3:12
  territories. European Commission spokesperson Christian Wiegand said the voting in Russian held
• 3:18
  regions represented another blatant violation of international law. The European Union does
• 3:23
  not, and will never recognize either the holding of these so called
• 3:26
  elections, sham elections, in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or their
• 3:32
  results. Activists describe A coercion to vote.
• 3:38
  Violeta Artenchuk, coordinator of the Donbass SOS Human Rights Group, who was
• 3:43
  among those who signed the statement, said members of local election commissions
• 3:47
  were going house to house, escorted by Russian troops and security agents,
• 3:51
  to force people to vote. Moscow appointed authorities exert pressure on residents,
• 3:57
  threatening those who work in the public sector with dismissal if The
• 4:00
  fail to vote, and making pensions and other social payments conditional on
• 4:05
  participating, Artemchuk said. For instance, if a person with a disability or
• 4:10
  a pensioner relies on social assistance and does not take part in
• 4:13
  the voting, they could be added to a list of individuals deemed
• 4:17
  disloyal to the so called authorities, and subsequently deprived of their benefits
• 4:21
  or humanitarian assistance, she said. Volodymyr Fasenko, a political analyst with the
• 4:27
  Kyiv based Pentacenter, emphasized that elections held at gunpoint are a farce.
• 4:33
  The very fact that voting takes place amid endless shelling and bombing
• 4:37
  reflects the Kremlin's attitude toward the people and the electoral process in
• 4:41
  the occupied territories, Fasenko told the Associated Press. It's nothing short of
• 4:46
  a mockery. Any electoral procedures conducted by the Russian occupation authorities have
• 4:51
  nothing to do with democracy, he said.