Polling stations opened early Friday in Russia's Far East, kicking off a three-day election that President Vladimir Putin's party is all but guaranteed to win in the fifth year of war with Ukraine.
In Russia the parliamentary election has begun, which will last until Sunday. In the largest country in the world with its eleven time zones opened the first polling stations on the Far Eastern peninsula Kamchatka. A clear victory of the ruling party "United Russia" is considered safe - also because the opposition was excluded.
In total, more than 111 million voters in 89 regions have been summoned to the polls to elect the 450 deputies who will make up the State Duma (the lower chamber of Parliament) through more than 90,000 polling stations.