RUSSIA: Villagers in Smolensk region cast their ballots with hope for guaranteed pensions, low prices, good health care and peace in the country

Record ID: 327707

  • Title: RUSSIA: Villagers in Smolensk region cast their ballots with hope for guaranteed pensions, low prices, good health care and peace in the country
  • Date: 5th March 2012
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF MAN PLAYING OLD BUTTON ACCORDION AT HOME FIREWOOD ON FLOOR
  • Embargoed: 20th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAWDTOVQCR06WAPYUOWW5Z7Q2R
  • Story Text: Russians in the Smolensk region went to the polls on Sunday (March 4) to cast a ballot for a new president, hoping their votes would make a difference.
    A ballot box and a voting booth were set up in a small room of a little wooden house in the village of Klyukino, and election workers carried boxes through snowy fields from house to house to collect votes.
    In the village of Oktyabrskaya, pensioner Maria Tolstova said she wasn't optimistic about the vote, but still she hoped there would be some changes in the Russian political system following the poll that is expected to return Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to the presidency that he held from 2000-2008.
    "It doesn't depend just on me whether there will be stability or changes. What can I do alone? Sure, I wish that the things change for the better," Tolstova said.
    Vladimir Larchenko, also a pensioner, said he agreed.
    "We expect that nothing gets worse, just better, that everyone alive thinks about other ones alive," Larchenko said.
    Putin's victory was not in doubt in voting from the Pacific coast to western borders with the European Union, and from the Arctic north to the frontier with China. Oktyabrskaya lies in the west of Russia, not far from its border with Belarus.
    Early signs were that turnout would be high. Officials said more almost 48 percent of voters had cast their ballots by 3 p.m. Moscow time (1100 GMT), more than at this stage in the 2008 vote that elected Putin's ally, Dmitry Medvedev, to the Kremlin.
    Some voters expressed anger at being offered no real choice in a vote pitting Putin against four weaker candidates - communist Gennady Zyuganov, nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, former parliamentary speaker Sergei Mironov and billionaire metals tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov.
    Others said Putin, 59, who has portrayed himself as a man of action and guardian of stability, was the tough national leader the world's biggest country and energy producer needed.
    Pensioner Anna Naritskaya said she hoped there would be some stability, if not improvement, in the economy.
    "Let everything become just better. That's' what we are expecting. Though we don't know whether it will be better or worse. Perhaps all prices will get higher," Naritskaya said.
    Opinion polls showed Putin, who has remained Russia's dominant leader despite stepping aside in 2008 because he was barred from a third straight term by the law, would win 59 to 66 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a second-round runoff.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Audio restrictions: This clip's Audio includes copyrighted material. User is responsible for obtaining additional clearances before publishing the audio contained in this clip.
Register