Russians cast votes for Duma polls in Keralam capital

You don’t have any Active Subscription.

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Russian nationals residing in Keralam and tourists cast their votes in the State capital ahead of the elections to the Russian Parliament on Saturday.

Elections are being held to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, from September 18 to 20.

As part of arrangements by embassies and consulates around the world to allow Russians around the world to cast their votes, a polling station was arranged at the Russia’s Honorary Consulate here too.

Aleksandr Fomin, Deputy Consul General, Chennai; Ratheesh Nair, Honorary Consul of Russia; and Anastasiia Pismennaia and Sergei Kliukin of the Chennai Consulate led the arrangements.

On Sunday, voting will be organised for Russian nationals working at the Kudankulam nuclear plant.

Mr. Ratheesh Nair said that since opening in Thiruvananthapuram in 2008, Russia’s Honorary Consulate had made arrangements for casting of votes for both Presidential and Parliamentary elections. Usually, the number of voters for Presidential elections was more. Moreover, as these were held in March, the voters included a number of tourists. The conflict in West Asia, however, had led to a dip in the number of visitors from Russia. Opportunities for online voting too are available. Despite this, around 10 voters turned up to cast their votes, Mr. Ratheesh Nair said.

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.