As of: March 15, 2024, 2:55 p.m
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The election is intended to ensure Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin will remain in office for another six years.
© Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin Pool/Sputnik via AP/dpa
Russia's three-day presidential election has begun.
Kremlin leader Putin wants to secure a fifth term in office in the unfair vote.
Moscow - According to authorities, there were several attacks with paint on ballot boxes with ballot papers on the first day of the presidential election in Russia, which opponents of the Kremlin described as a farce.
Women and men poured ink into urns in the Rostov region and in the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia in the North Caucasus, said the deputy head of the electoral commission in Moscow, Nikolai Bulayev, according to the state news agency Tass.
The aim of the attackers was to invalidate the ballot papers.
Bulayev called for greater security at polling stations.
A video also circulated on social networks that shows a woman - supposedly in Moscow - pouring paint from a bottle into an urn, initially completely unmolested.
The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.
Bulayev accused the perpetrators of acting on behalf of others.
“It is clear that they were promised money, a reward,” he said.
Russia repeatedly accuses Western states of wanting to influence the vote.
Another video showed an elderly woman setting a voting booth on fire.
According to the media, the 70-year-old was arrested in Moscow and faces up to five years in prison.
According to the “Fontanka” portal, there was an arson attack on a polling station with a Molotov cocktail in St. Petersburg.
Opposition members advised quiet protest
Protests are banned in Russia.
Opposition members around Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in custody, had called for a protest election.
However, they advised quiet protest and also pointed out the risk of being arrested and punished.
Opponents of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin were therefore advised to protest quietly so as not to risk imprisonment.
It was said that ballot papers in the booth could be invalidated by ticking several candidates.
Previously, the returning officer Ella Pamifilova, a former human rights activist and now a close confidante of Putin, had also called for vigilance against saboteurs at the polling stations.
“It's about the same kind of scumbags who blow up train tracks and blow people up for 10,000 rubles (100 euros).
“You are ready to sell anything for a penny of blood,” she complained.
Voting lasts until Sunday evening, when the last polling stations in Kaliningrad (formerly Königsberg) on the Baltic Sea close at 7 p.m. CET.
The first forecasts are expected immediately afterwards.
There will only be meaningful results on Monday night.
According to the electoral commission, around 114 million people are called to vote.
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No OSCE election observers
Putin's three competitors are not only seen as having no chance.
They are also all in line with the Kremlin and sometimes directly support the incumbent.
Applicants who spoke out against Putin's war of aggression were not even accepted as candidates.
The opposition speaks of an “election farce” that has nothing in common with a vote according to democratic rules.
Election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are not invited this time.
Even before the vote, there were numerous allegations of organized voter fraud.
According to independent observers, not only are public servants and employees of large companies being pushed to the polls in large numbers in order to increase voter turnout.
The Kremlin also organized illegal sham votes in occupied areas of Ukraine over the three days.
Kyiv: elections illegitimate
Ukraine protests against the votes held in violation of international law and calls on the international community not to recognize the results.
It was said in Kiev that the elections were illegitimate and had no legal consequences.
They would also give reason not to recognize Putin as president.
The Supreme Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, also called for increasing sanctions pressure on Russia.
The Foreign Ministry in Kiev accused Russia of violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine in violation of international law.
The ministry called on people in the occupied territories not to take part in the “pseudo-elections”.
“Russia’s dictatorship has long since had nothing to do with democracy,” it said in a statement.
Rather, Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague with an arrest warrant on suspicion of having committed serious war crimes in Ukraine.
He has been in power for more than 24 years through manipulation, propaganda and violence, including assassinations of independent politicians.
According to Russian figures, 4.5 million people are called to vote in the occupied parts of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson.
Voting will also take place on the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Russia puts the number of eligible voters living in other countries at around two million.
According to the Electoral Commission, around 114 million people have been called upon to vote.
The Kremlin is hoping for a high voter turnout.
In 2020, Putin had the constitution changed specifically in order to be able to run as a candidate again.
According to the current constitution, he is allowed to run again in 2030, but then for the last time.
EU Council President Michel congratulates Putin on his election victory
EU Council President Charles Michel congratulated Putin as the winner on the first day of the election.
“I would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his landslide victory in the elections starting today,” he joked on the X (formerly Twitter) platform.
“No opposition.
No freedom.
No choice."
According to Russian state pollsters, Putin can expect a record result of more than 80 percent of the vote.
That would be the highest result for him ever.
dpa