A Kerala touch to Russian Presidential elections

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  A tiny part of Vladimir Putin’s and Gennady Zyuganov’s fate in the coming Russian presidential election will be decided here in the state. For the first time ever, there will be a polling booth in the state for the elections. A polling booth will be set up at the Honorary Russian Consulate at Van Ross Junction here.“The elections in Russia are on March 4. Here the voting will be held on March 2,” Russia’s Honorary Consul in Thiruvananthapuram Ratheesh C Nair said.The booth is intended for Russians residing in the state and for tourists who are in the state at that time.Russian officials will oversee the voting. Any adult with a Russian passport can exercise his franchise at the polling booth, where paper ballots will be used to cast the  vote. It is a normal practice for consulates to have polling booth for elections in the respective countries.In South India, the consulates in Chennai and Bangalore used to have polling booths.  In the recent years, the Russian Government has held polling at Koodankulam, as many Russians are working on the nuclear power project there.The registered candidates for the Russian presidential elections are Vladimir Putin (United Russia), Gennady Zyuganov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), Sergey Mironov (A Just Russia), Vladimir Zhirinovsky (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia) and Mikhail Prokhorov (Independent).