From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisie, and this is the Daily.

Russians go to the polls today in the first presidential election since their

country invaded Ukraine two years ago. The war was expected to carry a steep cost for Vladimir Putin.

But as my colleague Valerie Hopkins explains,

the opposite has happened.

Today, Valerie travels around Russia to understand how Putin has done it and how long that can last. It's Friday, March 15th.

So Valerie, the presidential elections in Russia are starting today and it's the first

one since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine two years ago and back then you know

there was this idea that the war could potentially become ruinous for

Vladimir Putin, both politically and economically.

And here we are with Putin running for re-election two years later. So we come to you as our

on the ground Russia expert to talk about where we are in the arc of President

Putin's power.

Well, Sabrina, these elections are set to run Friday to Sunday.

29 regions are voting online and some of them have already started.

And it's a big event for Putin, but you and I both know very well

that elections aren't necessarily the best measure of the people's choice in Russia.

Putin is running once again

without any real genuine competition.

Some of my friends in Moscow actually just refer to it as the voting.

The voting.

Because it's not really an election.

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