The Russian Federation may conduct “voting from home” in a pseudo-referendum for intelligence gathering – ISW
The Russian occupation authorities can speed up preparations for illegitimate pseudo-referendums in the Ukrainian territories occupied by it.
This was reported by the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
According to them, the occupiers can turn “voting from home” in a pseudo-referendum into an intelligence-gathering operation to destroy the Ukrainian opposition in the occupied territories.
They also expand opportunities for direct intimidation of Ukrainian civilians and make any independent monitoring of the “voting” impossible.
Abolishing in-person polling stations removes many of the requirements for staffing these polling stations. The occupiers tried their best to recruit people for these positions.
“Voting at home” also limits the ability of guerrillas to attack.
The ISW notes that the Russian Federation may schedule different types of voting in different occupied areas depending on the perceived support of the local population, the risk of guerrilla attacks and bureaucratic capacity.
For example, the Ukrainian head of the Luhansk regional military-civilian administration, Serhiy Gaidai, reported on August 7 that the Russian occupation authorities in the Luhansk region had identified places for the personal holding of the “referendum”.
We will remind that the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, reported that the Russian invaders want to hold a pseudo-referendum for seven days, walking around the apartments with machine guns.
Source: ISW
