90% of Crimeans to vote for Putin in election: poll

CAIRO – 20 February 2018: About 90 percent of Crimean people are expected to vote for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the upcoming presidential election set for next month, according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center and published by The Moscow Times on Tuesday.

The Russian poll clarified that the Crimean population is more than 80 percent in favor of Putin, compared with only 70 percent of the population of Russia intending to vote.

The poll also revealed that most of the Crimean population approves of the Russian government’s performance, thinking that the situation is changing for the better.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and separated it from Ukraine in the wake of the Ukrainian revolution, which led to the imposition of Western financial sanctions and caused the isolation of the island from foreign tourists and investment.

In 2014, Putin stated in the Federal Assembly that Russia would respond to Western sanctions, adding that the Crimean referendum for annexation to Russia was conducted in full accordance with democratic procedures and international law, and he pointed out that the inhabitants of the peninsula will speak three languages: Russian, Ukrainian and Tatar.

In the United Nations, only Afghanistan, North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Syria recognize Crimea as a legitimate federal subject of Russia.

On February 7, the newspaper Kommersant reported that Putin might vote in Crimea for the March 18 presidential election.

The presidential election is scheduled for March 18, the fourth anniversary of the Crimean annexation by Russia.