The initial day of voting in Russia’s presidential election was spoiled by acts of damage at voting locations Friday, with at least nine apprehensions for pouring dye into ballot boxes and setting fires.
Vladimir Putin is about to secure another six years in the Kremlin after a three-day vote he has depicted as a display of Russians’ faithfulness and support for his military attack on Ukraine, now in its third year.
Despite authorities cautioning that election-day demonstrators would face severe punishment, at least nine people were arrested for acts of damage at voting locations.
In Moscow, footage displayed a woman igniting a voting booth and filling a voting station with smoke, while another video showed a woman pouring green dye into a ballot box.
Four other individuals in the Russian areas of Voronezh, Karachay-Cherkessia and Rostov were confined for comparable offenses, while in Saint Petersburg and the Siberian region of Khanty-Mansi, women were arrested for hurling Molotov cocktails at voting locations.
A man was apprehended for igniting fireworks inside a voting location in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, while in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, an explosive device was detonated at a voting site.
Near the border with Ukraine, a series of Ukrainian drone and artillery strikes resulted in the death of two individuals in the Belgorod region.
‘Not to stray’
Russia also carried out one of its most deadly missile attacks of the conflict, resulting in the death of at least 14 people in a strike on the Black Sea port city of Odesa.
The strikes conclude one of the most intense weeks of aerial attacks since the beginning of the conflict and come after a week of cross-border attacks by pro-Kyiv guerrilla combatants, bringing Putin’s two-year conflict into Russian territory once more.
In power as president or prime minister since the end of 1999, triumph in the three-day vote would enable Putin to remain in power until 2030 — longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century.
On the eve of the vote, Putin urged Russians to support him in the face of a “challenging period” for the country.
“We have already demonstrated that we can be united, defending the freedom, sovereignty and security of Russia … Today it is crucial not to deviate from this path,” he stated Thursday on state TV.
The leader of the Kremlin is feeling very self-assured.
His troops have gained their first territorial advances in Ukraine in almost a year and his most vocal adversary of the last decade, Alexei Navalny, passed away in an Arctic prison colony last month.
‘Above all, victory’
In Moscow, a small number of residents waited in line in the morning sun to be among the first in the capital to cast their votes.
“It’s important to vote, for Russia’s future,” stated 70-year-old Lyudmila.
She supported Putin and was hoping for “above all, victory” in Ukraine, she mentioned.
Another Putin supporter, Natan, 72, expressed his desire for the government to “boost employment, work to ensure that there is no war, stability in the country”.
With all of Putin’s major opponents deceased, in prison or in exile, the result of the vote is not in any doubt.
Election authorities prohibited the few genuine opposition candidates who attempted to run against Putin and a state-run pollster forecasted this week that Putin would secure more than 80 percent of the vote.
Western governments and Kyiv have criticized the election as a fake and a joke.
‘Big win’
Voting was also happening in occupied parts of eastern Ukraine that Russia says it has taken over.
Armed soldiers in full combat gear accompanied election officials in the eastern Donetsk region as they set up mobile voting stations on small tables in the street and on the hoods of old cars from the Soviet Union.
Kyiv said holding the election in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, which Russia took over in 2014, was “illegal.”
On Friday, European Council President Charles Michel sarcastically congratulated Putin on his “big win”.
It was unknown whether the spate of polling station incidents was a planned protest against the ballot or an isolated incident.
Russia’s opposition has called for voters to form queues at polling stations on Sunday, the final day of voting, as a form of protest.
Moscow prosecutors warned Friday that they would punish anybody involved in mass rallies.
Aerial assaults
Putin put his attack on Ukraine at the forefront of his campaign.
But the consequences of Putin’s military attack could overshadow his election parade at home.
Kyiv launched some of its biggest air attacks on Russia this week — some reaching hundreds of kilometers into Russian territory — and pro-Kyiv guerilla fighters have staged a series of daring cross-border raids.
Ukrainian attacks on the Belgorod border region on Friday killed at least two people, the regional governor said. Three children were killed in the Russian-held Ukrainian city of Donetsk, its mayor said.
In a statement Friday, Russia’s defense ministry said it had “fully restored control” over one settlement in the Belgorod region, using artillery, air strikes and guided bombs to dislodge militia fighters after a week of cross-border raids.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday the saboteurs were “trying to destabilize the elections, one way or another”.
Russia’s FSB security agency also announced a slew of arrests of Russians it said were planning attacks on crucial infrastructure to try to disrupt the elections and thwart Russia’s military attack.
AFP
