Russian authorities are holding local elections this weekend in occupied parts of Ukraine in an effort to tighten their grip on territories Moscow illegally annexed a year ago and still does not fully control. The voting for Russian-installed legislatures in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions begins on September 8 and concludes on September 10. It has already been denounced by Kyiv and the West. “It constitutes a flagrant violation of international law, which Russia continues to disregard,” the Council of Europe, the continent’s foremost human rights body, said this week. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the vote a “sham” and "nothing more than a propaganda exercise." To read the original story by AP, click here.