Even though Russia’s regional and municipal votes next month are widely seen as sham elections, President Putin is insisting on also conducting them beyond Russia proper in four Ukrainian territories he has annexed illegally.

Mr. Putin is hoping that extending the September 10 elections to Ukrainian territories, which the Kremlin at first unilaterally declared independent and then annexed, will enhance his war leader image at home and help feed the Kremlin’s propaganda machine.

Mr. Putin needs to uphold the “fallacy” that the illegally annexed territories are now Russian, a consulting fellow at the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, Mathieu Boulegue, tells the Sun. Yet, there is no such thing as a real election in Russia. “It is a mafia-style-led organization aimed at perpetrating the stability and survival of the ruling elite,” Mr. Boulegue says. 

Russia’s Central Election Commission in June announced the elections for “the new subjects of the Russian Federation.” These include the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk, which Russia declared as independent republics after its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. By September, Moscow had annexed the two regions, as well as the territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

By conducting elections in the occupied territories, the Russian government is attempting to create a facade of democracy “while showing confidence it will continue to control the region for a long time to come,” a fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, Elina Beketova, wrote.

“By forcing people to take part in the sham elections, Russia wants to implicate residents in the occupation and make them loyal to its forces,” Ms. Beketova added. “The main goal of the rigged votes is to legitimize the occupation of the territories as a stepping stone to integrating occupied land into the legal and political borders of Russia.”

Mr. Putin signed a bill in May ordering the elections to be conducted in areas currently under martial law, according to the Russian press. Previously, the legislation prohibited federal, regional, and local elections in those areas. 

Less than a month away from the elections, the head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, said Russia does not need Western-style democracy, declaring her agency “one of the most effective” among all Russian government departments.

Ms. Pamfilova is known for orchestrating the “resetting” of presidential terms in Russia and earlier sham referendums in the occupied territories of Ukraine, in which results showed a majority voting to join Russia.

Mr. Putin said in February that the elections scheduled for 2023 and the upcoming presidential election in 2024 will be in compliance with all Russian democratic and constitutional procedures. 

“The rights and freedoms of our citizens are inviolable, they are guaranteed by the constitution, and despite external challenges and threats, we will not retreat from them,” Mr. Putin said.

Yet, last week the head of Russia’s last independent election-monitoring campaign, Grigory Melkonyants, was arrested along with 14 associates. Mr. Melkonyants faces a maximum sentence of six years in prison for working with “undesirable” organizations, according to the Associated Press, which spoke to his lawyer, Mikhael Biryukov.

Ukraine’s electoral commission, the Central Election Commission, condemned Moscow’s intentions to hold illegitimate elections in its occupied territories. It is a “gross violation” of Ukrainian and international law and “irrefutable proof of the criminal actions” of the Russian government, a statement said. 

The commission called on the citizens of Ukraine currently living in the occupied territories to abstain from taking part in the elections, “thereby demonstrating their civic position, supporting the territorial integrity of Ukraine.” It also called on international organizations to condemn Russian actions over the annexed regions.

Most countries have rejected the Kremlin’s efforts to legitimize military annexations with forced votes. In 2022, Russia held illegal referendums in the four annexed regions. Kyiv and Western governments considered the votes a “sham” and refused to recognize the results. In 2014, Russia held a referendum in the annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea, which was widely rejected.

In 2020, Mr. Putin amended the constitution to prohibit the government from returning any territory to its previous owners once it’s been declared part of Russia.

The Russian government must hold referendums and rigged elections to create the illusion of support among citizens of the annexed territories, Mr. Boulegue says. Mr. Putin needs a “crowd-pleasing plebiscite movement” to justify Russia’s presence in those regions, he adds.