Acts of defiance before Putin claims election win

The Kremlin signalled last night that Vladimir Putin would claim a landslide victory in Russia’s presidential vote, as thousands in the country and abroad protested against his dictatorship, the war in Ukraine and a election that could have only one winner.

- Pjotr Sauer & Andrew Roth

 

In an election denounced by the US as "obviously not free nor fair", Putin won 87% of the vote, according to exit polling published by the staterun pollsters Russian Public Opinion Research Center and the Public Opinion Foundation.

After counting 50% of the votes, Russia's electoral commission claimed Putin was leading with 87.34% of the vote. In second place was the Communist party candidate, Nikolai Kharitonov.

The government also claimed turnout was the highest in history at 74% of the electorate. Putin's previous highest result came in 2018, when he purported to earn 76,69% of the vote with a 67.5% turnout.

As Putin sought a public mandate for his war in Ukraine and fifth presidential term, the Kremlin's electoral machine sought to boost his share of the vote and turnout to near farcical levels, posting results that used to only appear in Russia's most despotic regions such as Chechnya.

In the face of Putin's predictable victory, Russia's opposition sought to put together its own show of strength. Long queues formed at several polling stations in Moscow and other Russian cities as people took up a call from the widow of the president's most prominent opponent, Alexei Navalny, to head to the polls at noon yesterday.