As of: March 17, 2024, 12:48 p.m
By: Nail Akkoyun, Florian Naumann, Christian Stör, Daniel Dillmann
Comments
Press
Split
The last day of the Russian election was overshadowed by attacks in the border regions.
But Vladimir Putin's victory should not endanger this.
The news ticker.
“
Noon against Putin
” on the last
day of the election
: Hundreds take part in the protest against Vladimir Putin
Elections in
occupied cities
: There is an explosion in Berdyansk during the Russian election
Putin
votes
and waves at the camera: Russia's president cast his vote online
Update, 12.35 p.m.:
It's not just in Russia that people are demonstrating against the election of President Vladimir Putin.
Protesters are also gathering in front of the Russian embassies in numerous countries.
According to the Moscow Times, around 1,000 people took part in “Lunch against Putin” in The Hague.
In Berlin, Julia Navalnaya, the widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, attended the protest in front of the embassy.
Update, 11:25 a.m.:
Long lines are apparently forming at several polling stations in Russian cities.
This is reported by the
Moscow Times
news portal .
The large crowds are also said to be partly connected to the “Lunch against Putin” protest - for example in Saint Petersburg and Moscow.
On the last day of the Russian election, the public prosecutor's office in the capital warned the population against taking part in rallies of any kind and threatened prison sentences of up to eight years.
This is reported by the US portal
Newsweek
.
Hundreds of people line up in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin on the last day of the Russian elections.
© Carsten Koall/dpa
“Lunch against Putin” in the Russian election begins
Update, 10:09 a.m.:
Protests are said to have occurred in other places in Russia on the last day of the presidential elections.
This is reported by the team of the recently deceased Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
In Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg and other cities, several hundred people are said to have taken part in the “Lunch Against Putin” campaign.
The Navalny team reported this on its YouTube channel.
The campaign had called on Navalny's widow, Julija Navalnaya, to disrupt the course of the allegedly manipulated Russian election.
Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who lives in exile in Great Britain, also took part in the call to protest against Putin.
“At the 'Lunch against Putin' campaign we can look each other in the eyes, see like-minded people and experience that those who are against Putin are numerous.
We have the majority,” Khodorkovsky said in his video call.
Update, 8:22 a.m.:
Vladimir Putin's victory cannot be taken away from him in the Russian election in the country he rules authoritarianly.
Bill Browder, British entrepreneur and human rights activist in Russia, is also convinced of this.
Putin will rule “until the end of his life” if he is not overthrown.
But the pressure on the Russian president will increase in his fifth term in office.
“Putin has nothing to offer people other than death or prison,” the businessman, who was expelled from Russia in 2005, told the
AFP
news agency .
My news
Partisans announce “massive attack on Putin’s troops” – thousands of Russian civilians flee
“Dragon Fire” as a Ukraine game changer?
Western laser cannon hits “at the speed of light” read
Taurus surprise from Pistorius?
Bundeswehr should prepare cruise missiles
2 hours ago
Lavrov declares “Crimea case” “closed” – and threatens Western readers
“Nazi bastards”: Putin vassal Medvedev fires dark threat against next NATO country reading
Do-it-yourself armored personnel carrier: Putin gambles away the lives of his armored infantrymen
Update from March 17th, 6:15 a.m.:
This Sunday is the third and final day of the presidential election in Russia, which has been accompanied by allegations of manipulation.
The Kremlin designed the vote to demonstrate the supposed great trust in Vladimir Putin and support for his war against Ukraine.
The vote is intended to secure him a fifth term in office until 2030.
Russia election in occupied territories: explosion in Ukrainian city of Berdyansk
Update, 10:55 p.m.:
According to Ukrainian media reports, an explosion occurred in a school that had been converted into a polling station in the occupied Ukrainian city of Berdyansk.
“Locals reported hearing a single explosion.
It seems that an unpleasant incident for the intruders occurred in Berdyansk High School No. 2, also known as School No. 10,”
RBC Ukraina
channel quoted the Ukrainian military administration in charge of the city as saying.
Allegations of fraud in elections in Russia: Explosive video from Krasnodar
Update, 9:20 p.m.:
On the second day of the Russian election, there are increasing reports of election manipulation on the one hand - and of protests and arrests on the other.
Already by morning, 15 criminal cases had been opened for “obstructing the work of election commissions,” the
Meduza
portal reported , citing
Novaya Gazeta
.
There are known cases of people pouring substances into ballot boxes to make counting impossible.
But Meduza
also reported cases in which voters wrote words like “boycott” in voter rolls or on ballot papers.
The regime in Moscow apparently wants to prevent further protests: Readers apparently told the portal that they had received messages from bots on messenger services that accused them of supporting “extremist ideas” and asked them to vote “without waiting in line” – probably a reference to the one on Sunday planned campaign “Lunch against Putin”.
Attacks on Russia during Putin's elections: Voters react inconsistently
Update, 7:15 p.m.:
Attacks on the Belgorod and Kursk regions overshadow the carefully staged elections to confirm Vladimir Putin as President of Russia: According to authorities, two people were killed by Ukrainian shelling in the city of Belgorod on Saturday.
Several Ukrainian attacks with drones, rockets and cruise missiles on Belgorod and the Kursk border region were repelled throughout the day.
In addition, Russian troops prevented the penetration of “Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups” into Russia.
Election in Russia: Authorities surprise with first voter turnout level
Update, 4:27 p.m.:
In the run-up to the Russian election, the Kremlin seemed to be worried about voter turnout - now the authorities are reporting high numbers early on.
At 4 p.m. Moscow time (2 p.m. CET) on Saturday, more than one in two eligible voters had already cast their vote either at a polling station or online, said the deputy head of the Russian Election Commission, Nikolai Bulayev, according to the Interfax agency.
The election lasts three days and ends on Sunday.
Overview of voter turnout in Russian elections
Year |
Result |
2000 |
68.6% |
2004 |
64.3% |
2008 |
69.7% |
2012 |
65.3% |
2018 |
67.5% |
“Noon against Putin”: Large protest planned for the Russian election on Sunday
Update, 2:28 p.m.:
Kremlin critics want to disrupt the elections in Russia with a large protest on Sunday in Moscow.
Under the motto “Lunchtime against Putin,” crowds of people are expected to show up at the polling stations and form long lines.
The aim is to draw attention to the discontent in the country.
Potential participants from Moscow are now receiving warning messages in advance.
It includes a request to take part in the election “quietly” – “without queues and provocations”.
Russian election: Putin speaks of “senseless attempts to disrupt” Ukraine in Belgorod
Update, 10:05 p.m.:
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has described the new attacks from the Ukrainian side on the Russian border region of Belgorod on the first day of the presidential election as a senseless attempt to disrupt.
“I am convinced that our people, the people of Russia, will respond to this with even greater solidarity,” Putin said on Friday during a video link with representatives of the National Security Council.
The people in the multi-ethnic state would not allow themselves to be intimidated, said the president.
He wants to be confirmed in office for the fifth time in the vote scheduled for Sunday.
The 71-year-old voted online from his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow.
Election in Russia: Putin casts his vote and waves at the camera
Update, 9:35 p.m.:
Russian President Vladimir Putin cast his vote online on the first day of the presidential election in his country.
Footage distributed by the Kremlin showed the longtime Russian leader walking to a desk and sitting at a computer against a backdrop of two Russian flags, before the message "Thank you, you voted successfully" appeared on the screen.
The Kremlin chief then waves at the camera.
Elections have begun in Russia: Putin is already receiving “congratulations”
Update, 5 p.m.:
The presidential elections in Russia continue.
Because the winner of this much-criticized vote has basically been determined, EU Council President Charles Michel sent ironic congratulations to Moscow as a precaution.
“I would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his landslide victory in the elections starting today,” Michel mocked on the X (formerly Twitter) platform.
“No opposition.
No freedom.
No choice,” he added.
And Russia's power apparatus itself isn't making too much effort to maintain the illusion of an exciting election: preparations for Putin's big victory celebration this Monday have been underway on Red Square for days.
Putin's results in the previous Russian elections with him as a candidate
Year |
Result |
|---|---|
2000 |
52.9% |
2004 |
71.3% |
2012 |
64.4% |
2018 |
76.7% |
Update, 3:30 p.m.:
There are also apparently protests by exiled Russians in Germany against Putin and the election in Russia.
Supporters of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny have called for a “lunch against Putin” in Berlin, among others.
The “FreeNavalny” alliance told IPPEN.MEDIA
that they plan to appear at polling stations with flash mobs and disrupt the voting process
.
Update, 10:02 a.m.:
The border region of Belgorod came under fire from Ukraine on the first day of the Russian election.
This was announced by the Russian state news agency
Ria Novosti
.
Seven rockets were fired.
Many people would have had to leave the polling stations.
According to
Tass
, all polling stations in Russia are now open.
“Neither free nor fair” - West speaks of vote manipulation in Russia election
Update from March 15, 7:50 a.m.:
Western foreign policy experts have described the elections in Russia as “neither free nor fair.”
This emerges from a letter signed by the chairmen of the foreign committees from more than 20 countries and quoted from the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
.
The statement was initiated by the chairmen of the foreign committees in the Baltic states and by Michael Roth (SPD), the chairman of the corresponding committee in the Bundestag.
Election begins in Russia: 112 million people called to the polls
First report from March 14, 2024:
Moscow - 112 million eligible voters in an election that lasts three days and spans eleven time zones.
The Russia election is one of the biggest ballots of 2024, but the winner has long been determined.
President Vladimir Putin is heading for his fifth term in office.
The 71-year-old politician, who has held various positions at the helm of Russia since 2000, has long since silenced the opposition.
Real opposing candidates are not allowed in the Russia election.
So it's hardly surprising that Vladimir Putin is dominating the polls for the Russian election.
The only thing that remains unclear is the outcome with which the president will be confirmed in office.
Two other factors are likely to become much more important for the Kremlin.
Can the president announce a new record result after the election?
In his first victory in 2000, Putin only received 52.9 percent of the total vote.
In the last Russian election it was 76.7 percent.
This time the result should be north of 80 percent.
The other important factor for Vladimir Putin in the Russian election is voter turnout.
The president is trying by all means possible to drive this up.
A high level of participation is intended to preserve the appearance of democratic structures and to consolidate Putin's sole claim to leadership in the middle of the Ukraine war.
The highest voter turnout since the 2000s was in the election in which it was not Putin who was running, but rather his confidant Dmitri Medvedev: In 2008, 69.7 percent of all those eligible took part in the election.
Putin achieved his best result in this statistic in his first election in 2000, when 68.6 percent went to the polls.
Due to numerous repressions against any opposition, little resistance or protest against the Russian election is to be expected.
However, neither is completely ruled out.
Particularly in the country's western metropolises such as Moscow and Saint Petersburg, individual actions could disrupt the election process.
Navalnaya calls for protests against Putin in the Russian election
Julija Navalnaya, among others, called for protests against Putin's election.
The widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who recently died in a prison camp, called on people in Russia to all go to the polling station on the same day and at the same time.
This could overload the polling stations and send a signal of democratic resistance in an undemocratic election.
Navalnaya titled the call “Lunch against Putin”.
How many people will ultimately dare to express criticism of Putin in the context of the Russia election remains to be seen.
In recent years, the power apparatus in the Kremlin has pushed forward the country's transformation into an authoritarian state.
Criticism of Putin or the war in Ukraine is punishable by prison.
Nevertheless, despite warnings from the authorities, thousands of people attended Navalny's funeral and used the funeral to silently protest against Putin.
The president himself spoke on Thursday (March 14), one day before the start of the Russia election.
“Let me say clearly that taking part in the elections today is a demonstration of patriotism,” Putin said
on Russian state TV , according to a report by
AFP .
Russia election also takes place in occupied parts of Ukraine
The presidential election begins on Friday (March 15) but not only in Russia.
People in the occupied territories of Ukraine should also confirm Vladimir Putin in office.
Around 4.5 million people are called to vote there.
In addition, around two million people abroad can take part in the Russian election.
The polling stations close on Sunday at 7 p.m. German time.
A result is announced in the hours afterwards.
(talk to agencies)