Residents of Four Annexed Ukrainian Regions Were Included in Russia's Vote

The vote included residents of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the war began but still does not fully control, as well as residents of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Russia illegally annexed in 2014. That is what balloting in annexed territory does: it converts a claim of sovereignty into an administrative arrangement. The front line and the franchise get drawn in different places. Residents of regions Moscow does not fully hold were included in the vote anyway, which asserts that they sit inside the political system regardless of who controls the ground beneath them.