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Putin questions US commitment to Syria ceasefire

The ministry also underscored Russia’s continuous efforts to persecute the citizens of Crimea who refuse to support Russian occupation policies, mainly Crimean Tatars.Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted his soldiers moved into the strategic Black Sea peninsula before the referendum took place, but has repeatedly denied backing the pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives since it began in April 2014. Russia’s weekend parliament elec.

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While casting his ballot, the leader of Russian opposition People’s Freedom party or PARNAS Mikhail Kasyanov said he expected multiple cases of election fraud to be registered during the poll.

(AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev). People cast their ballots at a polling station during parliamentary election in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016. Russia’s governing party and its three largely cooperative opponents are expected to retain their posit.

Looming large for the authorities is the memory of mass protests that followed the last legislative vote in 2011, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets over evidence of ballot stuffing in the biggest challenge to Putin’s dominance since he took charge in 2000.

“The United States and so-called moderate (rebel) groups under their control did not implement any of the obligations taken under the Geneva agreements”, Russian news agencies quoted Lieutenant-General Viktor Poznikhir as saying.

Election monitoring group Golos also said on its website that irregularities had been reported in a number of regions.

The ceasefire brokered by Moscow and Washington came into effect on Monday.

Widespread reported voter apathy suggested that turnout could be low.

“Wherever they go, they can’t influence results of the vote”.

He said he turned out “so that others don’t decide for me”, voting for the small Pensioners’ Party for Justice.

Voting is now underway for Russia’s 7th State Duma election. Pamfilova pledged to stand down if the election is proven to be rigged.

Unlike the last two parliamentary elections, only half of the seats will be selected by national party-list, with the other 225 being contested in races held in specific districts.

A new head of the central election commission has been appointed to prevent any vote-rigging accusations and observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe have been allowed to monitor the vote.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is voting, as a total of 14 political parties and 23 self-nominees in single-member constituencies are participating in the election.

“They’re just as bad as everyone, but I stand for diversity”, he said.

Ingredients for discontent are there again now, with the country mired in the longest recession of Putin’s 16-year rule due to low oil prices and the Western sanctions over Ukraine.

“We see attempts to regroup among these terrorists”, Putin told reporters in the Kyrgyz capital city of Bishkek on Saturday.

In Moscow, a man claiming to have a bomb threatened to blow up a polling station.

Another elderly voter, 75-year-old Ms Valentina Panteleyeva, said she backed the ruling United Russia party because Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin “has done a lot for us”.

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One demonstrator was detained in a scuffle with police. Another demonstration took place outside the Russian consulate in Odessa, where four protesters were arrested.

Russia votes in parliamentary polls with Putin secure