March 17, 2024
Updated March 18, 2024
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Video: Putin thanks Russian folks for belief in him, supporters applaud
President Vladimir Putin at all times supposed to assert a fifth time period as president with a landslide victory, operating in opposition to three different Kremlin-approved candidates.
But when election officers introduced that he had gained greater than 87% of the vote, he mentioned Russia’s democracy was extra clear than many Western democracies.
In reality, credible opposition candidates weren’t allowed to run.
Supporters of late Putin critic Alexei Navalny staged a symbolic protest.
Their “midday versus Putin” initiative resulted in lengthy strains of voters at midday in Russian cities together with Moscow and St. Petersburg, and much more strains outdoors many international embassies. had no impact on.
Monitoring group OVDinfo mentioned no less than 80 Russians had been arrested. There was no repeat of Friday’s sporadic assaults on some polling stations.
Western nations collectively condemned the vote as neither free nor honest.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron condemned the “unlawful election on Ukrainian territory.”
“The Russian dictator is simulating one other election,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mentioned.
In the phrases of Leonid Volkov, a Navalny ally who was severely overwhelmed with a meat hammer whereas in exile in Lithuania final week, “The proportion that was chosen by Putin has, after all, nothing to do with actuality.” .
To persuade residents to participate within the vote, Russian residents had three days to vote, and residents of Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine got even longer to vote.
An election fee official was reported killed within the occupied metropolis of Berdyansk on Sunday, and residents spoke of pro-Russian collaborators accompanying armed troopers going door to door with poll packing containers.
Image supply, Anadolu/Getty Images
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Officials mentioned turnout within the election was over 74%.
But on Russia’s rigorously managed state tv channels, the end result was hailed as a victory.
“This is an unimaginable stage of assist and solidarity for President Vladimir Putin,” mentioned one excited correspondent. “It’s a sign to the West.”
Putin was modest when answering questions from reporters, however cited Russia’s use of on-line voting, which officers say has attracted 8 million voters. He praised the nation’s presidential election marketing campaign as being much more superior than that of the United States.
Mr Putin had earlier been filmed hitting a key to train his democratic rights.
“It’s clear and utterly goal,” he mentioned, including, “Unlike mail-in voting within the United States, you should purchase a vote for $10.”
He is presently scheduled to stay in energy till no less than 2030, having dominated Russia since 2000, making him the longest-serving Kremlin chief since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Mr. Golos, an unbiased watchdog, was barred from monitoring the vote, however stories of fraud have surfaced and he’s pressuring public officers to vote both at polling stations or on-line.
Putin condemned those that defaced ballots and mentioned motion could be taken in opposition to them, however praised opposition activists for urging extra folks to vote.
He first talked about Alexei Navalny’s identify a month after his most vocal critic died in an Arctic penal colony.
In remarks that will have been geared toward rebutting widespread suspicions that he had Mr. Navalny killed, Mr. Putin mentioned he was contemplating swapping Mr. Navalny for prisoners held in Western nations. He confirmed the report, however the situation was that his rival by no means return.
“I mentioned sure, however sadly it occurred. What can I do? That’s life.”
Yulia Navalnaya spoke about standing in line for six hours outdoors the Russian embassy in Berlin as a part of the protest vote marketing campaign. She mentioned she wrote her late husband’s identify on her poll, and he or she praised everybody who got here to vote for giving her “hope that it wasn’t all in useless.”
Image supply, Sean Gallup/Getty Images
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Yulia Navalnaya supported a name for anti-Putin voters to come back to polling stations at midday.
One protester in London mentioned he waited in line for greater than seven hours to vote.
Activist and lawyer Lyubov Sobol mentioned in Washington, D.C., that the protest vote is not going to be mirrored within the Kremlin’s outcomes, “however this unity, this image continues to be essential.”
The Russian presidential election won’t ever be a stage taking part in area. The Kremlin tightly controls the political system, media, and elections.
Communist Party candidate Nikolai Kharitonov obtained simply over 4% of the vote, and the opposite candidates obtained even much less.
None of the three are severe candidates, and Kharitonov even praised the president earlier than the election, saying he was “attempting to unite the nation for victory in all fields.”
Millions of Russians will vote for a fifth time period for President Putin, partially as a result of they see no credible different.
But that is purely as a result of the Kremlin has eliminated potential challengers from the political world. Opponents have been imprisoned, exiled and even died.
For a number of weeks there have been strategies that an anti-war politician named Boris Nadezhdin is perhaps allowed to run. But final month, the electoral fee determined to exclude him as extra Russians sympathized along with his message and lined as much as register their assist.