Ahead of the final day of this three-day election, Ukraine launched a large-scale drone attack on the Moscow area. Three people were killed in Moscow Region, while in the capital the city’s oil refinery was hit.
At a polling station near the oil refinery, I spoke to voters about the attack.
There was no sense of surprise. More a quiet resignation. With Russia’s war on Ukraine now in its fifth year, Muscovites have grown used to their city periodically becoming a front line.
“People in the Donbas, as well as in Bryansk, and Belgorod near the Ukrainian border, hear this kind of thing every day,” a voter called Viktor told me.
“And they just get on with their lives.”
The outcome of this election was predictable. What happens next is less clear.
The Kremlin is likely to use the result to claim that most Russians have rallied behind the president, and to justify future policies and subsequent decisions on the course of the war.
The key question: what will those decisions be?
President Putin recently ruled out another wave of mobilisation.
“There is no scenario today that would require it,” he declared.
Not today, then. But what about tomorrow?
Despite official denials, in Russian society there remains deep anxiety about the possibility of a new round of mobilisation.
At the very least, the Kremlin is likely to treat the election result as a ‘mandate from the people’ to continue the war.
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