Five things to know about Russia’s presidential vote

File photo : Russian President Vladimir Putin.//AFP

Moscow, Russia – Russia is holding a presidential election from Friday to Sunday that is set to hand President Vladimir Putin another six-year mandate despite the tumult triggered by Russia’s campaign in Ukraine.

Here are five things to know about the vote:

– No opposition –

The only would-be candidates opposed to the campaign in Ukraine, Boris Nadezhdin and Yekaterina Duntsova, who gathered tens of thousands of signatures to support their candidacies, had their applications turned down.

Other than Putin, there are three registered candidates — the nationalist conservative Leonid Slutsky, the Communist Party candidate Nikolai Kharitonov and Vladislav Davankov, a businessman.

They have all supported Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

Kremlin critics point out that the role of these three candidate is to channel any…