With a satin leopard-print scarf framing her face, Nadezhda, a 23-year-old Russian ballerina, walks away from the voting booth in a Moscow polling station.

She has just voted in the presidential election, Friday March 15, for the first time in her life but without the slightest enthusiasm.

Like the vast majority of observers, she considers that the election holds little suspense.

Vladimir Putin, who voted online on Friday, is assured of being re-elected, with no opposition being accepted.

The Russian president came to power 24 years ago, more than Nadezhda's age.

“Around me, we are all used to the idea that everything is already decided for us, there is nothing we can do about it,” she says, refusing to give her last name.

“It’s all a bit wrong.”

“The fact that I’m here won’t change anything,” assures Nadejda.

Read alsoPresidential election in Russia: what are the three candidates vying against Putin for?

But if she had not gone to vote, she would have had “problems” with her employer, explains the young woman.

An election official escorts him to the voting booth, explaining to him how to vote before walking away.

“I chose the obvious option,” she told AFP, referring to the outgoing president.

Three other candidates were allowed to participate in the vote, none directly opposing Kremlin policies, the offensive in Ukraine or the repression against any dissenting voice.

A voter, her ballot in hand, prepares to vote in the Russian presidential election, March 15, 2024 in Moscow © NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP

Nadejda prefers not to get too involved in politics anyway.

“When I start to get interested in it, I don’t feel very good,” she explains, saying she is “very affected by everything that is happening.”

“Magnificent” plans

Barely launched, the presidential election has seen its credibility called into question abroad, from Washington to Brussels.

Moscow, which refutes these criticisms, says it has accredited 300,000 observers.

Among them, Faïzrakhman Kassenov, counselor at the embassy of Kazakhstan, a country allied to Russia, assures that he has not observed any violation.

Also read: After two years of large-scale war in Ukraine, an invincible Russian economy?

He too is already looking ahead, declaring that the election marks the start of a "new political cycle", Vladimir Putin having established "grandiose" plans for Russia.

The first day of the election was punctuated by damage to polling stations, acts whose motives remain to be clarified.

These attacks constitute an “attempt to disrupt the presidential election”, denounced the Russian president.

A voter votes in the Russian presidential election, March 15, 2024 in Moscow © NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP

But in Meshchansky's, with its blue walls, everything was calm at midday.

Alexandra Savina, 78, says she is "happy to still be alive to see [Vladimir Putin] re-elected."

“Everything he says, he does,” says this great fan of Russian news channels, on which the president is omnipresent.

For Alexandra Savina, the West is trying to “weaken Russia”.

The voter said she was disappointed by the comments of French President Emmanuel Macron, who reaffirmed his support for Ukraine the day before.

"Victory"

Lioudmila, who met a little earlier in school no. 1,500 in Moscow, also claims to want "victory" for her country over Ukraine.

The conflict has lasted for more than two years, with no end in sight.

According to her, the solution lies with Vladimir Putin.

A woman and soldiers queue to vote in the Russian presidential election, March 15, 2024 in Moscow © NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP

“It’s important [to vote], for the lives of my children, my grandchildren, for the future of Russia,” she argues.

Natan, 72, praises “stability”.

Outside, in front of the yellow and white school building, this 72-year-old retired construction worker says he wants "an increase in jobs", but also that there be "no war".

Natan speaks of a "bright future" that, according to him, Vladimir Putin can offer.

Also read “Noon against Putin”: small gesture and strong symbol of Russian opposition to Putin

“May everything be okay”

Russia is, however, under international sanctions and the entire economy is focused on military efforts.

The difficulties remain numerous, between inflation, shortages on the labor market and considerable demographic problems further aggravated by the exile of hundreds of thousands of Russians and the fighting in Ukraine.

A voter, her ballot in hand, prepares to vote in the Russian presidential election, March 15, 2024 in Moscow © Alexander NEMENOV / AFP

“It’s the economic stability of the country that matters to me,” nevertheless assures Mikhail, a 22-year-old student in the first year of a master’s degree in agronomy.

“We want everything to go well in all aspects of life: social, economic and commercial,” says the young man.

Without revealing whether he voted for the master of the country.

With AFP

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