Russian Media: The Kremlin wants to hold local “elections” in the annexed territories of Ukraine in the fall of 2023

In the fall of 2023, the Kremlin plans to hold local "elections" in the occupied territories of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions. Even despite the fact that martial law was imposed on these territories.

"Vedomosti" ["Journal"] writes about this with reference to its own sources.

Russian law prohibits holding elections during martial law. However, the Kremlin wants to use the existing amendments or change the law altogether.

In particular, they want to shorten the election campaign period by about a third. According to Russian law, the decision on the appointment of regional elections must be made no earlier than 100 days and no later than 90 days before the day of voting. These terms may be shortened in case of repeated or early elections.

The Russians want to use this amendment or amend the martial law. But so far such changes have not worked.

• On September 23, the Russian occupiers started "referendums" in the captured parts of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions. On September 27, the occupiers announced the results of their pseudo-referendums, everywhere — more than 87% were in favor of "joining" Russia.
• On September 30, 2022, Russian President Putin announced the "accession" of the Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine to Russia, then the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation called these "agreements" as "corresponding to the basic law." On October 3, these annexation "agreements" were ratified by the State Duma, and on October 4 by the Federation Council.
• On October 19, Putin declared martial law in the territories of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson regions annexed by the Russian Federation.