To the sound of a Russian pop song spit out from the speakers of a polling station in Sergiev Posad, in the Moscow region, Eduard Ichnazarov cheerfully casts a ballot in favor of Vladimir Putin.
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Like many other Russians, he believes that the current head of state, in power for almost a quarter of a century, is the only one who can bring peace with Ukraine after launching his army there in February 2022 .
“I came to vote for a man who does everything so that there are no wars in the world,” this 54-year-old artist told AFP.
He expresses his full confidence in his president, “a man who can really save the world,” he insists without batting an eyelid.
As opposition is not tolerated, the result of the vote is in no doubt: Vladimir Putin’s mandate will be extended on Sunday evening until 2030.
But, for the Kremlin, this presidential election must make it possible to show the image of a “united” Russia behind its leader, after two years of a deadly conflict in Ukraine and a barrage of Western sanctions.
“For life”
In Sergiev Posad, a town of 110,000 inhabitants located 75 kilometers northeast of Moscow, Sister Alexandra assures us: “Russians are for life, we do not support death.”
However, this 77-year-old nun sees “no paradox” in the Russian military assault in Ukraine, which, according to her, will “save lives”. An argument put forward by the Kremlin, which swears that it has launched its offensive in neighboring Ukraine to “protect” the Russian-speaking population there.
“We are moving forward and are on the right path,” continues this French woman, who moved to Russia in 2018 and now resides in this city known for its Orthodox monastery with golden and light blue domes.
On Saturday, members of the local electoral commission crossed this city with snow-covered roads to allow elderly people or people with reduced mobility to vote at home.
Inessa Rojkova, 87, welcomes them to her home. This retiree explains that she has participated in almost every election and that she is closely interested in politics.
“I am everything, I know everything… I watch television all the time,” she says to the small group who came to meet her, much to their joy.
In Russia, Vladimir Putin is omnipresent on television, which broadcasts his speeches and meetings with his ministers daily.
This year, the presidential election is marked by an increase in attacks on Russian soil from Ukraine.
Inessa says she “constantly worries” about her compatriots who live in the border regions of Ukraine.
She says she hopes for the “end of the special operation”, a euphemism imposed to describe the Kremlin offensive.
“Can you imagine how many people have died and now our areas near the front are suffering,” she laments.
Putin “irreplaceable”
Hundreds of kilometers further north, in Saint Petersburg, residents of Vladimir Putin’s hometown also say they deeply hope to return to their former lives.
“Everyone wants it: not just Russia but the whole world,” judges Yulia, 45, who works in tourism, a sector very affected by sanctions.
Also present in front of a polling station in the center of the former imperial capital, Lioubov Piankova, a 70-year-old retiree, is just as affirmative: “What we want today is, above all, peace,” confides- she told AFP.
Before qualifying: “No need to dictate your conditions to us. We ourselves know our conditions, what is bad for us, what is good for us,” she says, echoing the rhetoric of the Russian government which claims to want to negotiate according to its terms.
Tired after two years of conflict and sanctions, Konstantin, 46, asks for just one thing: “That I can wake up knowing that no one fights, no one dies.”
However, like many other Russians, he sees no other option than Vladimir Putin.
He also submitted a ballot in favor of the president: “No one can replace him yet. That’s why I’m voting for him.”