Putin Praises Trump, Assails Sanctions, Vows To Defend 'Great Power' Russia

By RFE/RL

Russian leader Vladimir Putin praised U.S. President Donald Trump as a “balanced” man he can negotiate with, but he also assailed the West for “illegitimate and unfair” Ukraine-related sanctions imposed on Moscow.

"I have no disappointment at all," Putin said about Trump during a wide-ranging interview released on social media on March 7, some two weeks before Russia’s presidential election.

"Moreover, on a personal level, he made a very good impression on me," he added, saying the U.S. president easily understands the specifics of issues and is a good listener.

It was not immediately clear when Putin made the remarks. The interview was part of a documentary titled World Order 2018.

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Sobchak Rebuffed On Crimea

Moscow Times this morning. Not sure whether this represents a backfire of Sobchak's strategy to contrast her view on annexed Crimea with that of all but one (Yavlinsky) of the other candidates.

Sobchak Added to Ukraine Blacklist After Announcing Crimea Visit

...In an interview on Tuesday with the Echo Moskvy radio station, Sobchak said she had filed a request with the Ukrainian government to visit Crimea. The next day, her profile appeared on the Facebook page of the Myrotvorets Center, a Kiev-based activist website that identifies people who “pose a threat to Ukraine’s national security.”

“You cannot violate Ukrainian state borders,” their Facebook post begins, adding that Sobchak was added to a list of “mercenaries, terrorists and their accomplices and Russian war criminals.”

Sobchak’s campaign headquarters said on Wednesday that the website would not deter Sobchak from visiting Crimea if she is given approval from the Ukrainian government, the RBC business portal reports.

Kremlin Countdown's got a slick new GIF!

Dead No More

The Central Election Commission has reportedly instructed local election officials in a town outside of Moscow to relocate a polling station that had been set to open in the local funeral home.

"Colleagues, think about it," commission head Ella Pamfilova said on March 7. "Please, turn on not only your heads but your hearts as well. I hope that you will move this polling station and find a more dignified location."

A photograph of the planned polling station made something of a splash on social media, with commentators speculating that there must be no schools or libraries or clinics in the town of Kurovskoye.

SMS Call To Action

For days now, Muscovites and other Russians have been reporting an avalanche of SMS messages urging them register to vote at a convenient polling station if they are away from the location where they are registered.

Moscow-based journalist Matthew Bodner, an American who is not eligible to vote, posted a copy of one such message on his Twitter account on March 6.

Grudinin Apologizes To Sobchak For Zhirinovsky

Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin returned briefly to the official, televised debate circuit on March 7, but he didn't intend to debate.

"I am absolutely convinced that this is not a debate," he said in his opening remarks. "So I am not going to participate."

Instead, he congratulated all Russian women ahead of the March 8 International Women's Day holiday, saying that Russian women are what the country should be most proud of.

Then he turned to journalist and presidential rival Ksenia Sobchak, the only woman among the eight candidates running in the March 18 election. He noted that Sobchak had been insulted during a previous debate by nationalist candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who called her a "whore" and a "prostitute," and said that Zhirinovsky had not apologized for his behavior. So Grudinin took it upon himself to apologize for Zhirinovsky, presenting Sobchak a bouquet of flowers before quitting the stage.

Zhirinovsky spoke immediately after Grudinin but did not appear to depart from his prepared remarks. He launched immediately and incongruously into a critique of the Russian health-care system.

Siberian Students Balk At Efforts To Make Them Vote

Students at a medical university in Novosibirsk are complaining that they are being compelled to vote in the March 18 presidential election, according to the Siberia Desk of RFE/RL's Russia Service and Current Time TV, citing a tayga.info report.

Students living in dormitories say they are being forced to apply for permission to vote on campus, adding that a deputy rector of the university's dental school would personally go over the lists of those who applied.

The Central Election Commission announced on March 3 that the number of people who have applied to vote in places other than where they are registered has reached more than 1.7 million. "That is a record," said commission member Nikolai Bulayev.

The Kremlin is said to be concerned that low voter turnout could undermine the election. Barred opposition leader Aleksei Navalny has dismissed the process as "the reappointment of Vladimir Putin" and urged voters to boycott. In response, local and national authorities have initiated numerous efforts aimed at boosting turnout.

Ukraine FM Calls Sobchak Crimea Request 'Schizophrenic'

Kyiv's top diplomat has responded to reports (from Sobchak herself and, e.g., UNIAN and Interfax) that candidate Sobchak has asked the Ukrainian Embassy for approval to campaign in Crimea.

"Everyone is asking me about Sobchak and occupied Crimea, because there are no other themes. Complying with Ukrainian law to enter occupied Crimea is a positive [thing], of course," Pavlo Klimkin tweeted late on March 6. "But legal entry to conduct illegitimate campaigning in illegitimate elections on occupied territory -- that’s definitely schizophrenia. Politically, of course."

Some reports suggested the embassy had not yet received such a request from Sobchak.

Sobchak Asks Kyiv For Permission To Visit Crimea

Candidate Ksenia Sobchak has applied to the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow for permission to visit the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea to campaign there, Ukraine's UNIAN news agency reported, citing embassy sources.

"If I go to Crimea, it will only be through Ukrainian territory," Sobchak said on Ekho Moskvy on March 6.

Ukraine has protested to Moscow and the international community against the March 18 presidential election being held in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Among the eight presidential candidates, only Sobchak and Grigory Yavlinsky have denounced the annexation as illegal. Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin has lauded the annexation and added that he would invite the eastern Ukrainian areas where Russia-backed separatists are fighting against Kyiv to join Russia as well.

The authorities in 2017 moved the date of the presidential election from March 11 to March 18, which marks the fourth anniversary of Putin signing the agreements that made the Crimea annexation official.