Videotaped preach ahead of the presidential elections that are held from tomorrow to Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked voters – including those living in areas Moscow annexed from Ukraine – to cast their ballots United at elections to determine the future of Russia.

“It is vital to underline our cohesion and determination to move forward together. Every vote you cast has value and meaning,” Putin said in the video, which was first broadcast in the Russian Far East.

“For this reason I ask you in the coming days to exercise your right to vote,” he added.

In his speech, Putin pointed out that all voters want to see a strong, free and prosperous Russia “in order to raise the standard and quality of life. And so it will be.”

The Russian president called “demonstration of patriotism» the exercise of the right to vote by Russians and added that this is particularly noticeable in the areas of eastern and southern Ukraine controlled by Russian forces.

Some of them were seized after the February 2022 invasion, and others were seized by pro-Russian separatists in 2014.

The Russian president estimated that the patriotic choice is clear for the residents of his regions Donbass in eastern Ukraine and Novorossiya – a tsarist term for southern Ukraine – which voted to annex their regions to Russia in referendums held in 2022.

“They voted in a referendum under the most difficult conditions in favor of union with Russia and again, in the coming days, they will make their choice,” Putin commented.

“Those participating in the special military operation will also vote. They are an example for all Russians,” he concluded.

Alone, without a rival

Putin, 71, has been in power in Russia as president or prime minister since 2000. In the presidential election, he faces three opponents, none of whom have criticized him.

Opinion polls show that he has the support of the majority of Russians, while one of them shows him garnering 75% of the vote intention.

Two candidates in the election who favored ending the war in Ukraine, which is officially called a “special military operation” in Russia, were excluded from the process.