Russian President Vladimir Putin secured a fifth term in the partial election results, despite facing only token challengers and suppressing opposition voices. With little margin for protest, Russians crowded outside polling stations on the last day of the election, apparently heeding an opposition call to express their displeasure with Putin. The impending landslide underlined that the Russian leader would accept nothing less than full control of the country’s political system as he extended his nearly quarter-century rule for six more years.
Putin hailed the early results as an indication of “trust” and “hope” in him, while critics saw them as another reflection of the preordained nature of the election. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron wrote on Twitter that the polls have closed in Russia, following the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory, a lack of choice for voters, and no independent OSCE monitoring. This is not what free and fair elections look like.
Public criticism of Putin or his war in Ukraine has been stifled. Independent media have been crippled. His fiercest political foe, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month, and other critics are either in jail or in exile. Beyond the fact that voters had virtually no choice, independent monitoring of the election was extremely limited. According to Russia’s Central Election Commission, Putin had some 87% of the vote, with about 90% of precincts counted.
Among those heeding the call was Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, who joined a long line in Berlin as some in the crowd applauded and chanted her name. She spent more than five hours in line and told reporters after casting her vote that she wrote her late husband’s name on the ballot.
Unusually, Putin referenced Navalny by name for the first time in years at the news conference. He agreed to the idea to releasing the opposition leader from prison, days before his death, on condition that Navalny didn’t return to Russia. Some Russians waiting to vote in Moscow and St. Petersburg told The Associated Press that they were taking part in the protest, but it wasn’t possible to confirm whether all those in line were doing so.
Voting took place over three days in Russia, with several dozen cases of vandalism reported during the voting period. Despite tight controls, several dozen cases of vandalism were reported, and several people were arrested, including in Moscow and St. Petersburg, after they tried to start fires or set off explosives at polling stations. Stanislav Andreychuk, co-chair of the Golos independent election watchdog, said that pressure on voters from law enforcement had reached unprecedented levels. He said that Russians were searched when entering polling stations, there were attempts to check filled-out ballots before they were cast, and one report said police demanded a ballot box be opened to remove a ballot. The OVD-Info group that monitors political arrests reported that 80 people were arrested in 20 cities across Russia on Sunday.
Beyond Russia, huge lines formed outside diplomatic missions in London, Berlin, Paris, Milan, Belgrade, and other cities with large Russian communities, many of whom left home after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian state television and officials said the lines abroad showed a strong turnout. In Tallinn, hundreds stood in a line snaking around the Estonian capital’s cobbled streets leading to the Russian Embassy, with 23-year-old Tatiana stating she came to take part in the protest.
(AP)
