The election days that ended yesterday were no longer just a process to allow Vladimir Putin to lead Russia’s plans for another six years. The comfortable victory, according to preliminary results of 87.97% of the votes cast, gives Putin not only the power, but also the support of his compatriots to continue military operations in Ukraine. Indirectly, yesterday’s elections were a referendum on the invasion, although the remaining candidates had always been in favor of the “special military operation” launched by Putin in 2022.
The shadow of Alexei Navalni was not felt throughout yesterday. Many citizens went to the opposition leader’s grave at Borisovo Cemetery in Moscow to place ballot papers near his grave. The Russian dissident, who died on February 16 while serving his sentence in Kharp prison, had floated the idea that those opposed to Putin would vote simultaneously at 12:00 to express their discontent in endless queues with the eternal Russian president. Navalni’s widow and his former associates, most of them in exile, have been actively promoting it on social networks in recent months. The result: crowds around polling stations in the country’s most important cities, especially Moscow and Saint Petersburg. “Lunch against Putin” followed unexpectedly despite strict monitoring.
The success was even greater abroad, where numerous videos shared on social media messengers show kilometer-long queues in front of Russian embassies around the world. Julia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, took part in the rally in Berlin, where at least 2,000 people were counted.
More than 74 arrests have been recorded within Russia for various reasons. In some schools, the time set by the opponents was used to close for a few minutes. It is known that many of the arrests were made against people who had used the ballot paper to write protest messages. In southern Moscow, a voter was arrested after he was found to have written “Putin is a murderer” on the ballot paper. A citizen of St. Petersburg was arrested by police after writing “Damn everyone” on a voter certificate.
Numerous organizations have denounced tricks used by those in charge of the voting table, such as the use of pens whose ink disappears after a few minutes or the mass filling of ballot boxes with ballot papers before and after work.
Almost 112 million Russians were called to vote in the world’s largest country with eleven time zones, where telematic voting was used for the first time. Putin himself used it during the day on Friday. According to the Russian Election Commission yesterday afternoon, more than eight million people voted online, which was sharply criticized by the opposition, aware that this method of voting could be fraudulent.
Voter turnout exceeded the turnout recorded in the 2018 elections at 73.33%, a figure that, in the absence of definitive data, is close to the historical high in presidential elections, which is 74.66% (1991). This percentage, compared to 67% in 2018, is the Kremlin’s trump card to justify the electoral farce.
In some regions, such as Chechnya, this limit has been far exceeded and participation has reached 100%. For the first time, polling stations in the occupied territories allowed ballot boxes to make it easier for Russian residents to vote.
Support for the rest of the candidates was anecdotal. The Communist Party’s Nikolai Jaritonov, an old acquaintance of Putin’s who had already taken part in the 2004 presidential election, again came in second place with a record 3.8%. Vladislav Davankov of the New People party received 3.73% of the vote and Leonid Slutsky of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia with an ultra-conservative profile was supported by 2.96% of Russians. The day had special significance as it had already been ten years since the illegal annexation of Crimea and numerous propaganda events were taking place across the country.