Watch: Bizarre Putin propaganda advert urges Russians to vote in upcoming election

Video echoes a horror film with flickering lights and wife approaching husband with knife in hand

Russians are being urged to vote for Vladimir Putin with a bizarre new propaganda advert promising better living standards if they back the Russian president.
The campaign advert, which went out on Russian television, begins with a seemingly innocuous discussion between a husband and wife.
As she is preparing dinner, she begins asking simple questions, such as “did you pop to the shop for groceries” and “did you wash the car”.
But the advert takes a sinister turn when her husband says he’s not bothered about voting because he doesn’t see what the point is.
After he says so, the lights in the kitchen begin to flicker in an echo of a horror film, as the woman strides towards her husband, knife in hand.
She then begins to pontificate on the importance of voting in the upcoming election – which Western observers believe will be tightly controlled and will inevitably result in a landslide for Putin – referring to a range of state handouts for Russian families.
The message is that it is every Russian’s patriotic duty to vote for Putin, who will deliver better living standards through handouts.
The video ends with the man dashing to a polling centre and casting his vote with a minute to spare.
Putin on Thursday urged Russians to vote for him at a “difficult” time for the country.
“I am convinced: you realise what a difficult period our country is going through, what complex challenges we are facing in almost all areas,” Putin said in an address to Russians on the eve of the vote.
“And in order to continue to respond to them with dignity and successfully overcome difficulties, we need to continue to be united and self-confident.”
Putin is set to extend his rule by another six years this weekend in a presidential election the Kremlin says will show that the country is fully behind his assault on Ukraine.
All of Putin’s major critics are dead, in prison or in exile, and authorities blocked the few genuine competitors who tried to stand.
Victory will allow Putin to stay in the Kremlin until at least 2030, a longer spell in power than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century.