IVANGOROD /Leningrad Region/, March 16. /TASS/. Russia’s Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova said on Saturday that she had turned to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights over the violation of international law in the wake of obstacles being created for compatriots abroad to vote in the Russian presidential election.

The Russian human rights envoy said it was important that polling stations had been set up in the Leningrad and Pskov Regions and Kaliningrad "where compatriots who are confronted with obstruction in the exercise of their electoral right can come and express their will."

"These are very courageous people and all of them are aware that they may become victims of reprisals and face persecution," she said.

"On my part, as the Russian human rights envoy, I have turned to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in order not just to draw the international community’s attention to the gross violation of international law but also to take measures to prevent this from being repeated and spread and simply to counter such violations," she said.

The Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, officially designated March 17, 2024 as the day of the presidential election. The Central Election Commission (CEC) then announced that voting would take place over three days on March 15-17.

Four candidates are vying for the top office, namely New People party nominee Vladislav Davankov; self-nominated candidate and incumbent President Vladimir Putin; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) nominee Leonid Slutsky; and Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) nominee Nikolay Kharitonov.