Occupied Donbas leaders preparing to hold primary elections

The leaders of the occupied territories of Donbas are preparing to hold primary elections in early October among political parties that will then compete in elections for local government bodies planned for early November, said on Sept. 7 Olga Aivazovska, a member of the political subgroup in the Trilateral Contact Group to resolve the war in Donbas. Election commissions, single-mandate districts and candidate requirements are already being formed for these primaries, she said. The purpose of these structures is to determine who will support the establishment parties and candidates and persecute those supporting the opposition.

The primaries plan violates the Minsk Accords and is also aimed at undermining the Minsk peace talks, Aivazovska said. Opposition to the plan was officially reiterated that day by the spokeswoman for Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine’s representative to the contact group.

Zenon Zawada: Elections are being organized in occupied Donbas as part of Russia’s propaganda campaign targeting the West. They are designed to enable Russian President Putin to appeal to the West and argue that he has fulfilled his end of the Minsk Accords, having organized the same elections that the Ukrainian government refused to do. The primaries are designed to filter the candidates and ensure that the subsequent elections will produce the candidates desired by the Kremlin, in our view.

Putin’s propaganda campaign surrounding the elections will fall flat with Western establishment politicians but could resonate with the Western public, which will further question the validity of the sanctions if it appears – on a surface level – that Russia is the one side earnestly trying to fulfill the Minsk Accords. In turn, the Western public will gain more reasons to support populist-nationalist candidates, who will use this argument (“Russia is trying but Ukraine isn’t”) in its campaign rhetoric.