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These remote, sparsely populated reindeer herding settlements are unlikely to turn Russia's electoral tide. But officials are desperate to raise turnout and show support for President Vladimir Putin. So no expense has been spared. The electoral commission is spending more than $20 million to bring ballot boxes to the 170,000 people who live in places with no polling station. Or in this case, not so much as a road.
A helicopter has to be borrowed from a local airline. After landing, the nearest inhabited settlement is at least a day away by snowmobile. Chubulga is so remote, it doesn't even appear on Google Maps. 5,000 kilometres east of Moscow, it sits between northeastern Siberia and the Bering Strait, and is an hours flight to the nearest village of Buor-Sysy. It feels like the end of the Earth.
The election result is a foregone conclusion. Putin has ruled Russia unchallenged since 2000, and has already been in the Kremlin for longer than anyone since Stalin. Visiting areas like this is part of the Kremlin's drive to secure a 70% return for Putin, amid an expected 70% turnout. The herders have been following the election closely. They spend nearly the entire year isolated in the taiga woodlands with the reindeer. But many of them say they hope Putin will help them preserve their traditional nomadic lifestyle.
Max Seddon, Financial Times, Yakutia.
