NEWSWATCH: “For the Kremlin, Boosting Turnout Is Key Task for 2018 Vote” – AP
“With a year to go before #Russia’s presidential election …. #Putin is set to glide easily to another term against a familiar pack of torpid rivals – leftovers from past races. But the Kremlin must figure out how to overcome one major problem in Russia’s political environment: public apathy. Putin’s strategists are searching for ways to draw more people to the polls … an ambitious task. Putin polled 64 percent in 2012, with 65 percent of voters casting their ballots, but last fall’s parliamentary elections attracted fewer than 48 percent of voters. * * * If Putin serves another six-year term, his two decades in power would make him the longest-tenured Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, who ruled for 29 years.”