President Vladimir Putin says Russia's election indicates “trust” and “hope” in him after a vote in which he stifled the opposition.
President Vladimir Putin says Russia's election indicates “trust” and “hope” in him after a vote in which he stifled the opposition.
Putin’s fiercest political foe, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month, and other critics are either in jail or in exile. Beyond the fact that voters had virtually no choice, independent monitoring of the election was extremely limited. She spent more than five hours in the line and told reporters after casting her vote that she wrote her late husband’s name on the ballot.
“Even if my vote doesn’t change anything, my conscience will be clear ... for the future that I want to see for our country,” she said. Like others, she didn't give her full name because of security concerns. Still, some people told the AP that they were happy to vote for Putin — unsurprising in a country where independent media have been crippled, state TV airs a drumbeat of praise for the Russian leader and voicing any other opinion is risky.
Several people were arrested, including in Moscow and St. Petersburg, after they tried to start fires or set off explosives at polling stations while others were detained for throwing green antiseptic or ink into ballot boxes. "It's the first time in my life that I've seen such absurdities,” Andreychuk wrote on the messaging app Telegram, adding that he started monitoring elections in Russia 20 years ago.
Beyond Russia, huge lines also formed around noon outside diplomatic missions in London, Berlin, Paris, Milan, Belgrade and other cities with large Russian communities, many of whom left home after Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
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