Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Friday that it would arrange for Ukrainians living in Russia to participate in Ukraine’s presidential elections in the event that they are called.
Earlier on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual call-in press conference. During the four-and-a-half hour event, he claimed that “five to ten million” Ukrainians live in Russia and that it is their right to participate in Ukrainian elections.
“If Ukraine opts for legitimate elections and we are tasked to organize voting for Ukrainian nationals in Russia, we will do everything we can to make this happen,” CEC chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said, as per Russian state media outlet TASS.
Putin’s source for this figure is unclear. However, under the Soviet Union, population transfer took place on a massive scale – such as the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, or the deportation of thousands of other Ukrainians to Siberia and central and far eastern Asia.
In accordance with Ukraine’s constitution, no elections have been held since Ukraine was placed under martial law after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Nevertheless, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 9 that he was “ready for elections” if the US and Ukraine’s European allies could provide security conditions to guarantee their integrity. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Zelensky for not stepping down when his term ended in 2024 – including, on one occasion, by calling him a “dictator.”
On Thursday, Zelensky reiterated his willingness to hold presidential elections, and expressed his support for online voting. A recent poll found that just nine percent of Ukrainians support holding presidential elections before a ceasefire is negotiated.
Putin has been in power since 1999, when he was first appointed acting president. He was re-elected for his fifth Kremlin term with 87.28 percent of the vote – a win that Pamfilova described at the time as “very clean” and “historic.”
Also on Friday, Putin said that he does not consider himself responsible for the tens of thousands of deaths that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago.