"Electoral sultanate": In Russian political jargon, the term refers to regions where the crudest frauds are practiced without any concern for plausibility or discretion, and which constitute an almost inexhaustible reservoir of votes for the Kremlin. Tatarstan, Kemerovo, Saratov, North Caucasus, Mordovia, Tuva: In all these territories, turnout as well as the scores attributed to the ruling candidates, whatever the type of poll, systematically exceeded 80%, and even approached 100%.

Reading the detailed results of the presidential election, which ended on Sunday, March 17, and which saw Vladimir Putin proclaimed the winner with 87.28% of the vote, revealed that the whole of Russia has been transformed into a huge "electoral sultanate." Without even mentioning the conditions under which the ballot was organized (dummy opponents, controlled media, repressive climate, whole sections of the population forced to vote) or the results of electronic voting, an impossible-to-analyze black box, fraud in polling stations appeared to reach unprecedented levels.

No region is spared from this observation, not even Moscow, where the authorities used to keep a certain discretion. A case in point was the Danilovsky District in the south of the capital. The area is known for its exorbitantly-priced covered market and its well-educated, affluent population. In polling stations where independent observers had managed to register, Putin's score hovered around 60%. In four polling stations where they were absent, it reached... 99%.

The town of Shebekino, population 40,000, in the Belgorod region, went even further. In one of the polling stations in this locality regularly shelled by Ukrainian forces, turnout reached 100%, for a vote of 100% in favor of Putin. Compared with this result, even Chechnya, with its 98.99% in favor of the president, pales into insignificance.

Fraud was greatly facilitated during this presidential election by the drastic reduction in the number of independent observers. Russia has a rich tradition in this field, with tens of thousands of volunteers, often well-trained, who until recent years registered as observers. Their presence during the voting and counting process made the work of fraudsters more difficult. Now, only parties admitted to the ballot and a handful of institutions can accredit observers. Access to polling station surveillance cameras has also been restricted.

As a result, videos of ballot box stuffing or multiple voting, which were still legion during the 2021 legislative poll, were this time rare, and often taken almost by chance, by willing observers armed with their phones. This was what happened, among other examples, when a polling station official in Krasnodar emerged from the polling booth with several ballot papers in her hand. The person who filmed the incriminating video was arrested on the spot and later sentenced to 14 days in prison and a fine for "offending state representatives" and "displaying forbidden symbols."

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