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President Putin's long-standing attempt to expand the Russian world - to control lost Soviet territory - has had only modest success. To Abkhazia, South Ossetia in Georgia, Transnistria in Moldova, and Crimea in Ukraine are likely to be added Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. Their residents are to be asked: "Do you want to leave Ukraine and join Russia?", Voting has begun and it runs through to Tuesday. A resident of Kherson, the largest city in southern Ukraine currently occupied by Russia, told Newshour's Owen Bennett-Jones he does not want to join Russia and he doesn't intend to vote. (Photo shows a soldier casting his vote in Luhansk. Credit: Reuters)