an authoritarian path. the country s first female prime minister, leading italy s most right wing government since world war two. emergency declarations have been made in six areas of cuba as hurricane ian starts to approach, evacuation plans have been prepared and homes and properties have been secureed. forecasters are warning of flash floods and mudslides and say ian will gather more strength as it heads towards florida. russia has granted citizenship to the former us national president vladimir putin signed the decree nine years after he fled to moscow. mr snowden faces charges in the us for leaking vast amounts of top secret intelligence material. britain s finance minister, kwasi kwarteng, is under renewed pressure to restore investors confidence, and soothe their fears about the country s financial
from the eastern regions of donetsk and luhansk, and the southern regions of kherson and zaporizhzhia, are being asked to attend polling stations and vote in referendums onjoining russia. 0lga aivazovska is head of the civil network 0pora, an international expert in electoral matters. she s in kyiv. your take on this process that is under way in eastern parts of ukraine? is under way in eastern parts of ukraine? , ., , . of ukraine? yes, of course. we are watching of ukraine? yes, of course. we are watching this of ukraine? yes, of course. we are watching this process. - of ukraine? yes, of course. we are watching this process. this | are watching this process. this process has not been free or legal at all. voting began after the announcement of a referendum by officials in russia, personally by putin. it takes place under the pressure
annexation, tojoin it to russia, these territories just for using so called military doctrine or nuclear tactical weapons against ukraine. that is why police don t call this process a referendum because it is a pseudo referendum. i believe that uk, usa and other western countries know why it is impossible to organise any referendums during martial law, during war orto be referendums during martial law, during war or to be ready to organise voting two days after the announcement of this pseudo referendum. the announcement of this pseudo- referendum. you have raised some pseudo- referendum. you have raised some very pseudo- referendum. you have raised some very important - raised some very important points and just from a practical point of view, as you have said, it is very difficult to pull off a free and fair referendum in such a short space of time. but without independent verification of what is going on, without journalists there to say what is happening, it is very difficult
of armed soldiers of the russian army, who would go to apartments of regular citizens and for them to vote at home, choosing between a box on the ballot and their lives. so we many videos day by see many videos day by day that russian soldiers, showing that russian soldiers, so called representatives of the pseudo referendum, came to people and did the pressure just for the so called voting. simultaneously with the voting, the collection of personal data of citizens will be used against civilians. first of all, i am talking about mobilisation of men to the russian army out of end of mobilisation of men to the russian army referendum nd of mobilisation of men to the russian army referendum and f russia going to make a then russia is going to make a decision annexation. it decision about annexation. it is for regions of ukraine. and russia doesn t have the power
is using these referendums, as you have said, to take this conflict to the next level. yes. that is why we have to be aware of what is going on but we can t produce reports of an observation mission because none of the organisations will be able to participate in such processes as what happened in crimea. at the same time, i believe that there is a connection between crimea and the current stories because in 2014, i didn t see personally i did see personally a very powerful reaction my eye did not see personally a very powerful reaction from the western world. it happened during a very long process but we were not ready to react somehow. now it is a new reality but russia is not the