INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia's Central Elections Commission claimed on Sunday that the United Russia party, which staunchly backs President Vladimir Putin, was
leading local ballots in four Ukrainian regions occupied by Russian forces.The Kremlin claimed to have annexed the eastern and southern
territories late last year despite not having full military control over them, and the so-called elections have been dismissed by Ukraine
presidential elections planned for next year expected to prolong Putin's rule until at least 2030.His opponents are in exile or jail and
Moscow has criminalised criticism of its conflict in Ukraine and detained thousands for speaking out.Authorities set up mobile polling
booths days ahead of the vote in annexed Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, where Moscow said a polling station was attacked by a
compiled a list of "collaborators" helping to organize the voting and vowed retribution.'Live in peace'In Rostov-on-Don, a southwest city
close to Ukraine's border that was attacked by drones this week, two voters told AFP the conflict was their main worry."We just want to live
We don't have any other concerns," said 84-year-old Anatoli, a pensioner who declined to give his last name.In Moscow, which was hosting a
"convincing" reelection, a senior election official said.In his 13 years at the helm of Europe's largest city, Sobyanin has presided over
numerous mega-projects that have transformed Moscow's skyline.In 2013, he was almost defeated by anti-corruption campaigner Alexei
Navalny.Navalny, who dismissed the vote from behind bars, was jailed in 2020 on old fraud charges his allies say were a pretext to end his
political work.Sobyanin beat out the grandson of a veteran Communist politician and a little-known candidate from a new party dubbed "New
People."Moscow residents ahead of the vote had praised Sobyanin for modernizing the city."Just yesterday, two metro stations opened,"
21-year-old student Rukhin Aliyev told AFP."Moscow is blossoming in front of our eyes."Musician Kirill Lobanov said Sobyanin had done "very
well" as mayor, particularly "in the last year" marked by the conflict.Sobyanin has in recent months downplayed increasing Ukrainian drone
attacks on Moscow that have hit the Kremlin and crashed into the capital's iconic financial district.'High alert'In regions bordering
commission chief Ella Pamfilova said voting had been postponed in Shebekino, a district of the Belgorod region that has been hit by
shelling, "due to a regime of high alert."Observers say one of the few competitive races in Russia's 11 time zones has emerged in Siberia's
remote Khakassia, where governor Valentin Konovalov is seeking re-election.The 35-year-old Communist defeated a Kremlin-backed candidate in
2018 after a wave of rare protests in the sparsely populated mountainous region.In this year's campaign, he initially faced Moscow-backed
candidate Sergei Sokol, who portrayed himself as a Kremlin-decorated "hero" who fought in Ukraine.Sokol dropped out at the last minute,
Konovalov is one of few regional leaders not backed by the Kremlin who remains in office.
