Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine begin staged votes as the Kremlin denies reports of men fleeing

[brooklynite]

Source: NBC News

As four occupied regions of Ukraine began holding controversial referendums on whether to join Russia on Friday, Russian men continued to flee the country as a result of President Vladimir Putin’s plans to raise more troops to bolster his faltering invasion of his smaller neighbor.

The voting in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions has already been condemned as a sham by Kyiv and its Western allies, including the United States.

Friday was the first day of a five-day period of voting in the regions after their Russian-installed officials rushed to announce the referendums earlier this week.

The Russian state news agency Tass reported that for "safety reasons," election officials would take ballots to people’s homes. Voting at actual polling stations would only take place on the last day. It said polling stations have also been set up inside Russia for Ukrainian residents who had evacuated there.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russian-ukraine-referendums-regions-fleeing-military-service-rcna49099

[cilla4progress]

1. Bastard

[RAB910]

2. LOL! This is the sort of bullshit Trump would try

only the world isn't buying it

[BeyondGeography]

3. They left out the part about police tagging along with the door knockers

Link to tweet

?s=21&t=YbFITAVea6IpJ1xhRumKXw

[speak easy]

4. No Mistakes!

[BeyondGeography]

5. Still revered

The only Russian political figure with higher ratings than Putin last time anyone checked.

[speak easy]

12. ... Lavrentiy Beria, not so much.

[samsingh]

6. i believe nothing russia ever says

[Enoki33]

7. This is Putin's transparent attempt to

show the people of Russia that he's 'doing more'. Solely for internal consumption and doomed to fail. There's hope Putin has passed the tipping point.

[sarisataka]

8. I suspect voter turnout

Will be above 95% with results favoring joining Russia at 87% +/- 4%

[sarisataka]

13. Votes in the regions have been tallied

I was a bit pessimistic. The votes to join Russia in the four regions ranged from 87% to 99%
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/moscows-proxies-occupied-ukraine-regions-report-big-votes-join-russia-2022-09-27/

And I'm sure these are true and honest numbers...

[Botany]

9. "It said polling stations have also been set up inside Russia."

So republican of them.

"It said polling stations have also been set up inside Russia for Ukrainian residents who
had evacuated there." You mean the Ukrainians who were taken @ gun point into Russia
not evacuated there.

[dalton99a]

10. Official results: 99% voted YES, 1% sent to prison

or executed

[Warpy]

11. Meanwhile, in Russia

things are worsening by the minute as men are called up at random and no one is safe from Putin's madness. It's the first time I've seen vloggers there demonstrating actual fear. There is no rhyme or reason to this, no orderly pattern, and that has made everybody nervous if they're stupid and terrified if they've got any brains.

Nobody is going to believe a word of this phony plebiscite because of the way they're doing it, trying to give daddy Vlad the vote he wants to see. He will still try to claim any attack on that part of Ukraine is an attack on Russia and try to justify the use of nukes.

We were able to vote our madman out of office. I sincerely hope there is a way for them to get rid of theirs before it is too late for all of us.