Pseudo-elections in the south: "Fierce fight for places on the lists" in Mariupol, Tabačnik is running for "United Russia"

Proputin's party "United Russia" formed a list of candidates for the "elections". It is planned that the elections in the occupied territories will be held on September 8, 9 and 10 of this year. There are already 50 people who are willing to join the so-called "Kherson Regional Duma", which the Russian authorities planned to form. Telegram channels under their control wrote about it on August 2.

The list of candidates was headed by Volodymyr Saldo, the "acting governor" of the occupied part of the Kherson region, Ihor Kastyukevich, the "secretary of the Kherson branch" of the party "United Russia" and Olena Dmitruk, the "director" of the bread factory in Nova Kahovka. The list of candidates also includes teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs and social workers.

Marina Zakharova, whom Russia appointed "head of the election commission", said that residents of the occupied part of the Kherson region will be able to vote in the "elections" with a Russian or Ukrainian passport and even with a driver's license.

"The following documents will be allowed: a paper passport of Ukraine, an identity card with a request, an identity card without a request, as well as any other document issued by a competent authority of Ukraine until September 30, 2022 (pseudoreferendum - ed.) and an authorized body of the Russian Federation after 30.09.2022. What kind of document could it be? It can be, for example, a driver's license," Zaharova said.

The "acting governor" of the occupied part of the Kherson region, Saldo, said on August 2, during the conference of the "United Russia" party, that a team had already been formed to work in the occupation structures and that "it is getting stronger."

The mayor of Nova Kahovka, Volodymyr Kovalenko, told "Novosti iz Azov" where preparations are underway for pseudo-elections in the occupied territories, and where they are not and why.

"The communities of Nova Kahovka and Novokahovska are located right on the front line. Therefore, the preparation for voting does not have a clear character. Literally 15 kilometers inland from the coast of Čornjanka (occupied territory on the left bank - note author) is the village of Sergijevka. They want to open schools there (polling stations - prim. author) and work on an open campaign is ongoing. But we in the Novokakhov community obviously don't have that," noted Kovalenko.

According to Kovalenko, the occupying forces have not yet announced where the "polling stations" will be set up in Nova Kahovka. He emphasized that the occupiers and their supporters, in order to form so-called "voter lists", continue to collect data on the local population and force people to take Russian passports.

"And the passport is information. They will provide everything they need in the "election information" ("minutes of the election commission" - ed. author), because they have expanded this database and the possibility of holding the so-called election, said Kovalenko.

According to him, together with the preparations for the pseudo-elections, the Russian authorities in Nova Kahovka are preparing for an offensive by the Armed Forces.

"When the water receded (after the destruction of the Kahovskaya HPP - author's note), they started again to mine the territory of the park, dig trenches, install reinforced concrete barriers - they will be shot at from there," said Kovalenko.

Given the hostilities and the Russian occupation of parts of the southern territories of Ukraine, the editorial office cannot obtain official confirmation of some of the statements made or independently verify them.

Occupied Zaporozhye: Tabačnik "runs" for "United Russia"

The "United Russia" conference was also held in the occupied part of the Zaporozhye region. There, on August 2, the list of candidates for the so-called elections. This list was headed by Yevhen Balicki, the "acting governor appointed by Russia" of the occupied part of the Zaporozhye region. In second place on the list is the "secretary" of the local branch of "United Russia" and the "chief" of the occupation administration of Melitopol, Galina Danilchenko. Third on the list was Volodymyr Rogov, the head of the public movement "We are together with Russia". A total of 60 people were included in the list of "United Russia" for the pseudo-elections for the representative body of the occupied part of the Zaporozhye region under the control of the Kremlin.

Pavel Timofejev, deputy of the Regional Council of Zaporozhye from Melitopol, told "Novosti Azov" that the "election commissions" that worked during the illegal and internationally unrecognized referendum in 2022 were involved in the preparation for illegal elections.

"The campaign is already underway, it may have a somewhat hidden character. This is mostly done by "United Russia". They advertise their party projects, show the activities of their candidates. They are associated with small budgetary measures with improvements. For example, some benches were painted - a story about that came out," says the deputy.

In the settlements near the front line, the Russian authorities planned an early "exit vote". It should take place on August 31.

"Members of the "Election Commission" will go door to door with machine guns and persistently ask for participation in the vote. Absolutely all locals living near the dividing line understand that this is a forced vote. Because if you refuse to vote or vote differently than they want, you will fall under the campaign to deport Ukrainians from the temporarily occupied territories. "There will be crazy pressure, and our residents are very worried about it," said Timofeev.

Residents of Russia and occupied Crimea, as well as the local population, apply for positions in the elected occupation authorities, he adds. According to him, among the visiting candidates are those who opened companies in the occupied territory, are on a business trip or have an administrative function. However, there are also former Ukrainian officials.

"Dmytro Tabachnik, who was once an ardent supporter of Viktor Yanukovych, did everything to suppress Ukrainian students, is nominated by the United Russia party." Now he is an adviser to the "acting governor" of the Zaporizhzhya region and will try to get a leadership position in the "legislative assembly" of the temporarily occupied part of the Zaporizhzhya region," said the deputy of the regional council.

According to Timofeev, the former MPs of OPZZH and Opoblok, who remained in the occupation and switched to the side of Russia, split into different parties. In this way, they depict artificial competition.

"They were in the same party, they were friends, they were business partners - now we see that one partner is in Žirinovski's party ("LDPR" - author's note), and the other partner is in the CPRF. This is an artificial distribution of candidates, an artificial coloring in party colors. The result has already been determined - absolutely everyone knows who will be the "deputy", concluded Timofeev.

Mariupol: Fierce fight for places on the lists of "United Russia"

The director of Mariupol Television, Mikola Osičenko, said in a comment for "Novosti iz Azov" that there are many people in Mariupol who are ready to join the occupation authorities.

"Elections are an opportunity for them to advance on the social ladder. They see it as an opportunity to do some work. Therefore, in Mariupol there is now a fierce fight for places on party lists. Everyone understands that "United Russia", which is Putin's party, must win and that, of course, it will get a majority in the occupied "city council" of the city", notes Osichenko.

According to him, it is in the interest of the Russian authorities and their supporters in Mariupol to receive considerable money from the Russian budget and funds. To do this, they allegedly artificially inflate the population.

"According to my data, there are now about 130,000 inhabitants of Mariupol, and that is not enough for them. For more than a month, they have been promoting the thesis that Mariupol has around 280,000 inhabitants. By manipulating the numbers, they have two goals. The first goal is to falsify the results of the pseudo-election. And the second goal is to get subsidies for 280,000 people from the Russian budget. These budget officials are "spending" and misappropriating money," suggested the media official.

"Fake elections - demonstration of arbitrariness and power"

Political expert Oleksandr Klyuzhev notes that Russia has external and internal political motives for holding pseudo-elections in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

"Holding the so-called local elections will be another brick in the strategy of justifying why it is impossible to liberate these Ukrainian territories and withdraw the Russian armed forces from there. This is a distorted Russian foreign policy strategy, which is based on arbitrariness, on force, and not on international law," Kljužev said.

In addition, the Russian authorities show their citizens that they are unwavering in their intention to occupy Ukraine.