2024-03-21 22:28:46
Vladimir Putin won 87.97 percent of the vote in Russia’s presidential election to renew his term, according to the first official results, Reuters reported.
The Russian President went into the election race virtually unopposed, with the opposition decimated and the Kremlin emphasizing national unity as a patriotic duty amid the conflict with Ukraine.
Putin’s main opponents are dead, in prison or in exile. The crackdown culminated in the mysterious death of Alexei Navalny in a prison in an isolated area in the Russian Arctic.
The elections were held in 11 different time zones in the largest country on the planet. The first polling stations opened in the regions of Chukotka and the Kamchatka Peninsula, in the far east, late last night (Greek time). The last polling stations in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad closed on Sunday night. The counting of votes is expected to be completed tomorrow morning.
Dozens of arrests
At least 74 people have been arrested in Russia for various protest actions during the presidential election, according to an NGO.
According to OVD-Info, an organization that monitors the crackdown, the arrests took place mainly in Kazan, in central Russia, and in the capital, Moscow. He clarifies that this number can be revised upwards, to the extent that new names will reach it.
Thousands of voters at the “noon against Putin”
Thousands of people turned out at polling stations across Russia today to take part in what the anti-Kremlin opposition said was a peaceful but symbolic political protest against the re-election of President Vladimir Putin.
In an action dubbed “Noon Against Putin,” Russians opposed to the veteran Kremlin leader went to their local polling stations at noon to either cast invalid ballots in protest or to vote for one of three other candidates against Putin, who is widely expected to win by a very large margin.
Others said they would write the name of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died last month in a prison in the Russian Arctic Circle, on their ballot.
Navalny associates posted videos on YouTube showing people queuing to vote at polling stations across Russia at midday who said they were there to protest peacefully.
Navalny had approved the plan for “Noon Against Putin” in a message on social media shared by his lawyers before his death. The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta called the planned action “Navalny’s political testament”.
Putin’s victory speech in Moscow: What he said about Ukraine, the West, Navalny
Vladimir Putin, in the context of the first statements he made after the end of the presidential elections, thanked the Russians who went to vote and trusted him, emphasizing that with their vote they give Russia the opportunity to stabilize and become stronger.
Continuing, he even argued that Westerners who criticize the Russian election are actually enemies of Russia who want to limit its growth.
The Russian presidential election concluded today, after a three-day electoral process (March 15-17), and according to the first official results, the 71-year-old Putin is shown to have more than 87% of the vote, marking the highest performance he has ever achieved in an election. in Russia, a sweeping performance which he attributed to the challenges his country has been facing in recent years.
Russia: Putin is president again… with an increased percentage
From the floor of a speech he delivered Sunday night in Moscow, Putin argued that the priority for Russia should now be to carry out all those missions related to Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, as the Kremlin insists on calling the war, and in that context making the Russian military even more powerful.
Referring to the Ukrainian, the Russian president asserted that his country’s armed forces advance into Ukraine every day, having the initiative on the battlefields.
He also noted that he should think about who he could talk to for a possible peace agreement in Ukraine, but implied that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, could not be such an interlocutor for Moscow.
Referring to NATO and the possibility of a large-scale Russia-West military conflict over Ukraine, Putin argued that anything is possible in the modern world, even a Third World War (which may be caused by the presence of Western troops in Ukraine , as he said). Continuing, however, he emphasized that none of the parties involved would like to see such a scenario come true.
However, Putin also spoke about other foreign policy issues, such as the Sino-Russian relations, which, according to the 71-year-old, are going to strengthen even more in the coming years.
Of course, the US and the West in general could not be missing from Putin’s speech, in which “there is no democracy” as the Russian president said, but he also referred to the death of Alexei Navalny, whose loss he described as “sad ».
Referring specifically to Navalny’s case, the 71-year-old Russian leader claimed that he had agreed before the 47-year-old’s death to exchange him for a Russian held in the West (including possibly Vadim Kraskov, whom Putin did not mention by name), provided, however, that Navalny would leave Russia and not return.
The Russian president said, otherwise, that his country is ready to consider a French proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine during the Olympics, but taking into account and taking into account Russian interests on the battle front.
With information from Reuters