Expatriate Russians will be able to vote in March\u2019s presidential election even if they live in \u201cunfriendly\u201d countries that have imposed sanctions on Moscow over the war in Ukraine, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday.
\nMaria Zakharova said there would be polling stations in all countries where Russia has diplomatic missions.
\nPresident Vladimir Putin is expected by supporters and opponents alike to stroll to victory in the March 15-17 poll and extend his rule by six more years. One anti-war candidate, Boris Nadezhdin, is campaigning against him but the Kremlin has said it does not consider him a serious rival.
\nZakharova said Russia would invite foreign election observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States, a grouping of countries that were part of the Soviet Union, and from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which includes China, India, Pakistan and Iran.
\nShe said it would be \u201cstrange\u201d if Russia were to invite \u201crussophobe\u201d election monitors from the Council of Europe.
\n(Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Expatriate Russians living in “unfriendly” countries will be allowed to vote in the upcoming presidential election in Russia, according to a spokesperson from the foreign ministry. Polling stations will be set up in all countries where Russia has diplomatic missions. President Vladimir Putin is expected to win the election and extend his rule by six more years. Foreign election observers will be invited from the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, but not from the Council of Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[486,3,153,201,146,154,19,331,17,293,18],"class_list":["post-2398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","tag-china","tag-cyprus","tag-elections","tag-europe","tag-iran","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-sanctions","tag-ukraine","tag-war","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n