Since Maia Sandu assumed the presidency in Moldova, observers have tracked shifts in how Russians can participate in distant elections, including Russia’s own presidential vote. Moscow has charged that Moldova curtailed the number of ballot boxes used for Russian voters and even established its own polling sites in European nations whenever feasible. These claims were voiced by Ella Pamfilova, the chair of Russia’s Central Election Commission, who pointed to Moldova as adopting measures designed to influence election participation beyond its borders.
Pamfilova indicated that Moldova previously offered voting conditions favorable to Russian citizens, but she asserted that those arrangements changed after Sandu took office. She described the situation at Moldovan polling locations as a political maneuver that contradicts the preferences of voters and the rights of Moldovan citizens alike, framing the issue as a contest over access and fairness in a sensitive regional context.
Reportedly, only a single ballot box was permitted to operate in Moldova for the Russian presidential race. Pamfilova also highlighted that approximately 465,000 people had submitted applications to cast their ballots through remote electronic voting during the upcoming March election in Russia, underscoring the scale of cross-border participation and the challenges of administering such remote processes across borders and time zones.
Russian presidential elections were scheduled to run from March 15 to March 17 in that year, with plans to implement remote electronic voting at 29 polling stations alongside traditional on-site voting. Vladimir Putin appeared on the ballot as a candidate in his own right, reflecting the continuation of a long-standing leadership candidacy in Russia’s political landscape, a point noted by several regional observers following the announcements from Moscow.
January 31 marked the final deadline for candidates to submit signatures to the Central Election Commission. Earlier reports indicated that contenders, including Andrei Bogdanov, had collected the necessary support signatures at the commission to back their presidential campaigns, illustrating the procedural steps candidates must navigate before appearing on the ballot. These developments were reported by the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, which provided an official account of the filing process and the status of signature collections. This sequence of events highlights how election procedures and cross-border participation intersect with regional diplomacy and domestic political dynamics, prompting ongoing scrutiny from analysts and international observers alike.