According to an exit poll by the pollster Foundation for Public Opinion (FOM), President Putin won 87.8% of the vote, the highest result in Russia’s post-Soviet history. The Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) puts President Putin at 87%. Initial official results showed the poll was accurate.
According to the results, communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov came in second place with just under 4%, followed by newcomer Vladislav Davankov in third place and ultranationalist Leonid Slutsky in fourth place.
“Given that Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him, the election is clearly neither free nor fair,” White House National Security Council spokesperson said. .
The election comes just over two years after President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, sparking Europe’s worst conflict since World War II. He characterized it as a “special military operation.”
The war continues during the three-day election period. Ukraine has repeatedly attacked Russian oil refineries, shelled Russian regions and tried to break through Russia’s borders with proxy forces, a move Putin said would not go unpunished.
Putin’s re-election was never in doubt, given that he rules Russia and has no real challenger, but the former KGB spy has shown that he has the overwhelming support of the Russian public. I wanted to. According to election authorities, as of 6:00 p.m. Japan time, when voting ended, nationwide voter turnout was 74.22%, exceeding the 2018 level of 67.5%.
Supporters of President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent, Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison last month, staged “Noon Against Putin” to show their opposition to a leader described as a corrupt dictator. He called on Russian citizens to take part in the protests.
There was no independent tally of how many of Russia’s 114 million voters took part in opposition demonstrations amid tight security involving tens of thousands of police and security officials.
Reuters reporters witnessed an increasing influx of voters, especially young voters, forming lines of hundreds or even thousands at midday at polling stations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.
Some people said they were protesting, but there were few outward signs to distinguish them from ordinary voters.
As midday struck across Asia and Europe, crowds numbering in the hundreds gathered at voting stations at Russian diplomatic missions abroad. Navalny’s widow, Yulia, appeared at the Russian embassy in Berlin to cheers of “Yulia, Yulia!”
Supporters of the exiled Navalny have posted videos of protests in Russia and abroad on YouTube.
“People realized they were not alone.”
“We have shown ourselves, all of Russia and the whole world that Putin is not Russia and that he has come to power in Russia,” said Ruslan Shavedinov of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. he said. “Our victory is that our people overcame fear and overcame loneliness. Many people realized that they were not alone.”
At least 74 people were arrested across Russia on Sunday, according to OVD Info, a group that monitors opposition crackdowns.
Over the past two days, there have been scattered protests in which some Russians set fire to voting stations and poured green dye into ballot boxes. Opponents posted photos of ballots defaced with slogans insulting Putin.
But with Navalny’s death, the opposition has lost its most formidable leader, with other major opposition figures also overseas, imprisoned or dead.
Western countries consider President Putin a dictator and a murderer. US President Joe Biden called him a “crazy SOB” last month. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has charged him with war crimes for kidnapping Ukrainian children, a charge the Kremlin denies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Sunday that Putin wants to rule forever. “There is no legitimacy to this imitation of an election, there can be no legitimacy. This person should be tried in The Hague. That is what we must guarantee.”
Putin has portrayed the war as part of a centuries-long struggle with a declining and decadent West, which he said humiliated Russia by encroaching on Moscow’s sphere of influence after the Cold War. claims.
“President Putin’s job now is to lead Russia’s political establishment in order to secure a like-minded successor,” said Nikolas Gvosdev, director of the national security program at the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Institute. “It’s about indelibly imprinting his worldview on your mind,” he told Russia Matters. project.
“For the US administration, which had hoped that President Putin’s adventures in Ukraine would decisively set back Russia’s national interests and be over by now, this election is an opportunity for President Putin to step further into the geopolitical boxing ring. It’s a reminder that we expect the rounds to be played.”
Russia’s elections come at a crossroads for the Ukraine war and the West, according to Western spy bosses.
Support for Ukraine is intertwined in U.S. domestic politics ahead of the November presidential election pitting Biden against his predecessor, Donald Trump. Trump’s Republicans in Congress are blocking military aid to Kiev.
Kiev has retaken territory after the 2022 invasion, but Russian forces have made gains after a failed Ukrainian counteroffensive last year.
The Biden administration is concerned that President Putin could seize control of larger parts of Ukraine unless Kyiv receives more support soon. CIA Director William Burns said that could embolden China.
Voting was also held in Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014, and four other Ukrainian regions that Russia partially controls and claims from 2022. Kiev considers elections in the occupied territories illegal and invalid.
Reuters