One resident complained of pro-Russian collaborators with ballot boxes going from house to house looking for voters accompanied by armed soldiers.
Vladimir Putin will certainly win another term of office, but a high turnout would help the Kremlin’s efforts to legitimise his continued rule.
It would also be used to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Absurd that pointing guns at people to get fake support would be seen as any more legitimate than just having the soldiers do the fake voting themselves.
I imagine that it is the same reason that a robber chooses to become a mugger rather than a burgler, when the latter is far less risky: they enjoy the confrontation.
Also it is the modern form of “lick my boot”, reinforcing in the mind of the recipient their own powerlessness.