Why does this vote matter?
为什么说这次投票很重要？

The presidential vote in Russia, which began Friday and lasts through Sunday, features the trappings of a horse race but is more of a predetermined, Soviet-style referendum.
俄罗斯总统选举从周五开始，一直持续到周日。这次选举有着一场赛马应有的排场，但其实更像是一场结果已定的苏联式公投。

President Vladimir V. Putin, 71, will undoubtedly win a fifth term, with none of the three other candidates who are permitted on the ballot presenting a real challenge. The main opposition figure who worked to spoil the vote, Aleksei A. Navalny, a harsh critic of Mr. Putin and the Ukraine war, died in an Arctic prison last month. 71岁的总统普京无疑将赢得第五个任期，其他三名获准参选的候选人都不会构成真正的挑战。曾致力于给选举造成扰动的主要反对派人物、严厉批评普京和乌克兰战争的纳瓦尔尼上月死于一座北极监狱。

Still, the vote is significant for Mr. Putin as a way to cement his legitimacy and refurbish his preferred image as the embodiment of security and stability. That image was tarnished when the war, advertised as a speedy operation to topple the government in Kyiv, turned into a slog that caused hundreds of thousands of casualties, ruptured relations with the West and ushered in harsher domestic repression.
尽管如此，这次投票对普京来说仍意义重大，因为他可以借此巩固自己的合法性，重塑自己安全与稳定化身的形象。这一形象在乌克兰战争遭到了损害，它原本被宣传为迅速推翻基辅政府的战斗，最终变成一场造成数十万人伤亡、与西方国家关系破裂、并招致更严厉国内镇压的苦战。

“The Kremlin needs to demonstrate huge popular support, and that this support has increased since the beginning of the war,” said Nikolay Petrov, a Russian political scientist at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin.
“克里姆林宫需要展示出民众的巨大支持，而且需要展示这种支持自战争开始以来有所增加，”位于柏林的德国国际安全事务研究所的俄罗斯政治学家尼古拉·彼得罗夫说。

Does Putin face any serious challengers?
普京是否面临严峻挑战？

The Kremlin habitually ensures that Mr. Putin faces no real competition. The other candidates — all members of the State Duma, Russia’s rubber-stamp Parliament — voted for the war in Ukraine, for increased censorship and for laws curbing gay rights.
克里姆林宫一贯会确保普京不用面临真正的竞争。其他候选人都是俄罗斯的橡皮图章议会国家杜马的成员，他们都投票支持乌克兰战争，支持加强审查制度，支持立法限制同性恋权利。

Nikolai Kharitonov, 75, of the Communist Party, already lost badly to Mr. Putin in 2004.
75岁的共产党人尼古拉·哈里托诺夫曾在2004年的大选中惨败给普京。

Leonid Slutsky, 56 of the Liberal Democratic Party, a nationalist group loyal to Mr. Putin, has said he will not rally voters against the president.
忠于普京的民族主义团体自由民主党成员、56岁的列昂尼德·斯卢茨基表示，他不会号召选民反对普京。

Vladislav A. Davankov, 40, from the New People Party, is nominally liberal and has called for “peace” in Ukraine but has basically supported Mr. Putin.
现年40岁的弗拉季斯拉夫·达万科夫来自新人民党，名义上是自由派，他呼吁在乌克兰实现“和平”，但基本上是支持普京的。

Two candidates opposed to the war were disqualified. A veteran politician, Boris Nadezhdin, alarmed the Putin administration when tens of thousands of people across Russia lined up to sign petitions required for him to run. The Kremlin invalidated enough signatures to bar him.
两名反对战争的候选人被取消资格。资深政治人士鲍里斯·纳杰日丁在俄罗斯各地得到数万人排队签署他参选所需的请愿书，引起了普京政府的警觉。克里姆林宫将大量签名宣布无效，从而禁止他参选。

Will the Kremlin manipulate the results?
克里姆林宫会操纵选举结果吗？

Russia held real elections for about a decade after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Ever since, the Kremlin has relied on various social, geographic and technical levers to ensure that its candidate receives an overwhelming majority.
1991年苏联解体后，在大约10年时间里，俄罗斯举行了的真正选举。从那以后，克里姆林宫一直依靠各种社会、地理和技术手段，确保其候选人获得压倒性多数。

Although Mr. Putin enjoys some support, the Kremlin has long sought to proclaim that he received more than 50 percent support in balloting, and also more support than he did in each previous vote. This year that means outstripping the 56 million votes that the authorities said he received in 2018; pundits are betting on 60 million.
普京的确拥有一定的支持，但克里姆林宫长期以来试图宣称他得票率在50%以上，而且每一次选举都获得了比上一次更多的支持。今年，这意味着要超过当局所说的他在2018年获得的5600万张选票；专家们认为会达到6000万张。。

Two important changes this time could add to the vote’s opacity.
这次有两个重要变化，可能会增加投票的不透明性。

For one, balloting will be held in the so-called “new territories,” the four Ukrainian regions Moscow annexed without fully controlling them. Russia’s election officials say the area has 4.5 million voters, an assertion virtually impossible to monitor amid a war.
首先，投票将在所谓的“新领土”举行，即莫斯科吞并但没有完全控制的四个乌克兰地区。俄罗斯选举官员表示，该地区有450万选民，但这一说法在战争中几乎无法得到监督。

“We cannot check the figures there and the authorities will use them as they wish,” said Alexander V. Kynev, an independent election expert in Moscow.
“我们无法核实那里的数据，当局会随心所欲地使用这些数据，”莫斯科的独立选举专家亚历山大·基涅夫说。

Also, the ability to vote online will be more widely available, with electronic voters in 29 regions on one huge list, with no means to check where or how they voted, Mr. Kynev noted.
此外，基涅夫指出，网上投票的功能也将更加普及，29个地区的电子投票者将被集中在一个庞大的名单上，无法查看他们身在哪里，或是如何投票。

In a sprawling, diverse country like Russia, the Kremlin can also use more traditional means. Regions dominated by ethnic strongmen, like the Caucasus, habitually report huge turnouts with Mr. Putin receiving 99 percent of the vote — even if relatively few people show up at polling stations.
在俄罗斯这样一个庞大而多元化的国家，克里姆林宫也可以使用更传统的手段。像高加索这样由少数民族强人控制的地区，通常会报告说投票率很高——并且由普京获得99%的选票——即使投票站出现的人相对较少。

Areas where state industries prevail also tend to report heavy support for the president. To turn out the vote, some polling stations hold raffles for prizes like household appliances or firewood. One Siberian region is offering 16,000 prizes.
国有工业占主导地位的地区也倾向于报告总统获得了大力支持。为了让选民投票，一些投票站举行抽奖活动，奖品包括家用电器或柴火。西伯利亚的一个地区提供了1.6万份奖品。

But the Kremlin must rely on some votes in big cities, and that can get tricky. Excessive manipulation has created unrest previously. There might be slightly more manipulation this year because monitors are barred unless issued credentials by the candidates.
但克里姆林宫必须依靠大城市的一些选票，而这可能会很棘手。此前，过度的操纵曾经造成动荡。今年可能会有更多的操纵行为，因为除非得到候选人的许可，否则监督员是被禁止的。

Can Russians protest?
俄罗斯人能抗议吗？

With street demonstrations banned, some Putin opponents hope to cast protest votes. The simplist method to lower his tally is to vote for someone else, experts noted.
由于街头示威被禁止，一些普京的反对者希望投出抗议票。专家指出，要降低他的得票，最简单的方法是投票给其他人。

“Noon Against Putin,” a campaign pushed by Mr. Navalny’s organization, suggests swarming polling places at midday on Sunday. But there are a number of hurdles, including possible confrontations with the police.
纳瓦尔尼的组织发起了一场名为“正午反对普京”的运动，该运动建议在周日中午蜂拥到投票站。但这其中存在许多障碍，包括可能与警方发生冲突。

Also, in previous votes, few polling stations had more than 3,000 registered voters and many had fewer than 1,000. “It is technically very complicated to create a crowd,” said David Kankiia, an analyst with the Golos election watchdog, barred in Russia.
此外，在以前的投票中，很少有投票站的登记选民超过3000人，许多投票站的登记选民不到1000人。“从技术上讲，制造人群是非常复杂的，”在俄罗斯被禁止的选举监督机构Golos的分析师戴维·坎基亚说。

Can Putin remain president for life?
普京能终身担任总统吗？

Since he was first appointed successor to President Boris Yeltsin in 2000, Mr. Putin has said Russia’s Constitution would dictate the length of his tenure. Then he kept rewriting the Constitution.
自2000年首次被任命为鲍里斯·叶利钦总统的继任者以来，普京一直表示，他能任职多久是由俄罗斯宪法决定的。此后，他不断修改宪法。

Asked in 2014 whether he would remain president forever, Mr. Putin responded, “This is not good and it is detrimental for the country and I do not need it either,” before adding, “We will see what the situation will be like, but in any case the term of my work is restricted by the Constitution.”
2014年，当被问及他是否会一直担任总统时，普京回答说，“这样不好，对国家有害，我也不需要这样做，”然后他补充道，“咱们到时看看情况会怎么样，但无论如何，我的工作期限是受宪法限制的。”

In 2008, when term limits forced him to step aside, he became prime minister under President Dmitri A. Medvedev, although Mr. Putin remained the power behind the throne until reclaiming the top job in 2014.
2008年，由于任期限制，普京不得不让位，他成为德米特里·梅德韦杰夫总统任内的总理。不过，他仍然在幕后掌握着权力，直到2014年重任总统。

Presidential terms were extended to six years before the 2018 vote, and then in 2020 Mr. Putin changed the constitution again to reset his term clock. At this point, he can have at least two terms until 2036. If Mr. Putin lasts, he will soon outstrip the record, 29-year rule of Joseph Stalin.
在2018年总统大选之前，总统任期已被延长至六年，然后在2020年，普京再次修改宪法，重新设定任期期限。这样，他至少还可以连任两届，直到2036年。如果普京能继续执政，他很快就会超过约瑟夫·斯大林创下的29年统治纪录。

When will the voting results be known?
投票结果将何时揭晓？

The tally is expected to be announced sometime Sunday night Moscow time.
预计统计结果将于莫斯科时间周日晚间公布。

Milana Mazaeva、 Alina Lobzina及Oleg Matsnev对本文有报道贡献。

Neil MacFarquhar自1995年以来一直担任时报记者，撰写从战争到政治、艺术等一系列议题，报道范围既涵盖美国也包括国际议题。

翻译：纽约时报中文网