The four days of stage-managed referendums on joining Russia in occupied parts of Ukraine, which wrap up on Tuesday, blended raw intimidation tactics, including armed men in ski masks at polling stations, Orwellian messaging and efforts at festivities, such as thinly attended concerts on central squares.

The referendums were a show of supposed democracy by Russia, but one that is likely to have chilling real-world consequences. Results are expected to claim that a majority of residents voted to join Russia, with the Kremlin then formally announcing annexation as soon as this week.

The staged votes in occupied land in Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizka in the south earned broad international condemnation, and world leaders have said they would not recognise the results.

“They bang loudly, they ring the doorbell, they give people a ballot and point with their rifles where to put the mark,” Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of the occupied city of Melitopol, said in an interview.

The results from the referendum will be meaningless, he said. The aim is apparent: to claim the land in four provinces partly occupied by the Russian Army as Russian and assert that Ukraine is now attacking Russia, not the other way around.

President Vladimir V. Putin said Russia will defend the territories with any means. The country has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal. Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia who now serves as deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council, reiterated on Telegramon Tuesday that Moscow had the right to defend itself with nuclear weapons and that was“definitely not a bluff.”

Formal annexation would require a vote in the Russian parliament. Putin is scheduled to address both houses on Friday, suggesting that a possible vote on annexation could take place then, British military intelligence reported.

In Russia, protests over a draft that Putin declared last week have broken out in multiple cities. Half a dozen conscription offices were burned in arson attacks, a military recruiter was shot and gravely wounded on Monday and Russian men rushed to border crossings to evade the draft.

Nato warning

Any use of nuclear weapons by Russia is unacceptable and would have severe consequences, Nato said on Tuesday after an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin issued another stark nuclear warning to Ukraine and the West.

New York Times News Service