Highlights: On the third day of the Russian presidential election, the plebiscite is underway. Russian President Vladimir Putin was credited with more than 87% of the vote according to the first results on Sunday evening. “Family values, stability. We lived in the 1990s, we know how essential this is,” says a retiree who voted for Putin. Retirees are also the age group that has always supported and still supports the decision to send troops to Ukraine most widely in Russia.

In Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin was credited with more than 87% of the vote according to the first results on Sunday evening. The result of the presidential election therefore promises to be beyond expectations.…

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“Who else, besides Putin?”
On the third day of the Russian presidential election, the plebiscite is underway

In Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin was credited with more than 87% of the vote according to the first results on Sunday evening.

The result of the presidential election therefore promises to be beyond expectations.

For this third day of voting, there will in any case have been a mobilization for the call to come and express one's disagreement with the Russian head of state and his policies by coming to vote "at noon against Putin".

But the president's supporters continue, at the dawn of a fifth term, to justify and support his choice to send troops to Ukraine.

And this, in a climate increasingly marked by confrontation with the West.

A man casts a ballot during the Russian presidential election in Moscow, this Sunday March 17, 2024. AFP - ALEXANDER NEMENOV

By: Anissa El Jabri Follow

From our correspondent in Moscow,

Two retirees leave the polling station arm in arm.

Faced with the microphone held out by a French radio station, the husband's reflection: “

I want to talk to you, but don't go twisting my words and expressions, eh?
I don't like Europe, because you all lie.
People here speak honestly, and journalists distort.

» The sentence of this fervent supporter of

Vladimir Putin

as he leaves a Moscow polling station is pronounced with a smile, but it reflects well the climate which reigns in Russia.

The messages from power launched since December have been received five out of five: the authorities have particularly alerted the population against “

foreign interference

” for this presidential election.

Without any real competition – the critical candidates having all been excluded – this election, which above all resembled a symbolic ritual, also took place under the auspices of developed security measures.

Numerous police officers could be seen inside and outside the offices, and the National Guard was circulating in the streets.

“Family values” and “stability” at the heart of the Putin vote

This suspense-free election is not without stakes for the Moscow government.

The expected plebiscite

must be, for the Russian head of state, as much a means of strengthening his internal legitimacy as a lever that he intends to use to show his muscles to the West.

“

Who else but him?”
who else ?

“, asks this retiree

listing his reasons justifying, ballot after ballot, that he puts a ballot for Vladimir Putin in the ballot box: “

Family values, stability.
We lived in the 1990s, we know how essential this is.

» In other words, these are the well-known values and arguments of this generation, the electoral base of Vladimir Putin.

Retirees are also the age group that has always supported and still supports the decision to send troops to Ukraine most widely in Russia.

France, Germany and half of Europe have been waging a formal and informal war on us since 2014. And President Putin united Russia so that we can face any difficulties, and we will definitely win.

Neither France, nor Germany, nor any other country can defeat us.

00:50

Presidential election in Russia: a pro-Putin voter explains his choice

Anissa El Jabri

“

France, Germany and half of Europe have been waging a formal and informal war against us since 2014

,” says, in line with what the government continues to hammer home, a man who presents himself as a retired officer in a polling station in a legitimist district of Moscow.

“

Tell your listeners

Russia is taking on the West and it is the only country today that is showing the entire planet how the world should work.

Asked about the duration of what Vladimir Putin always calls “

a special operation

”, everyone clearly stated that they were ready to endure a conflict if it continued for several more years.

Alexeï Navalny's shadow hovered over the presidential vote

Voters opposed to Vladimir Putin are being as discreet as possible, lowering their voices, using circumlocutions, choosing English, when they master it, in an obvious effort not to be understood by passers-by or the police.

“

Will what I’m going to tell you stay secret?

», asks a student who came to vote at noon.

Before adding: “

Despite the fact that our choice to come at noon is legal, it is still difficult to know how this could turn out.

At the polling station where this young woman risked, despite her concern, coming to respond to the call “

noon against Putin

”,

Alexeï Navalny

had collected more than 70% of the votes during the last election, where he had been authorized to compete, namely the 2013 municipal elections. In reference to the opponent announced dead in prison last Friday February 16, a voter whispered: “

I would have liked to vote for the man whose name we cannot pronounce.

» Less explicit, but just as transparent, another young woman also advances, looking around her and lowering her voice: “

I would have liked to be able to vote for someone who is open, who listens to the opinions of others.

It was often about nothing else this Sunday for these “liberal” voters than feeling a little less alone.

“

I was offered to go before everyone else, but I refused

,” explains a mother with her twins in a stroller

“

But I was happy to wait, because I was with like-minded people.

» She is also the only voter to be so direct: “

I crossed out all the names on the ballot, I voted against all the candidates.
I don't support the authorities because they started this war, they put people in prison and they killed Alexei Navalny.
I do not support these murders and these horrors.
I don't want my children to grow up in this atmosphere.

When leaving the polling station, some voters go directly to the cemetery where Alexeï Navalny is buried.

And on his grave, still covered with flowers, they add their ballots.

Read alsoPresidential election in Russia: in Moscow, no crowds on the second day of voting

“Who else, besides Putin?” On the third day of the Russian presidential election, the plebiscite is underway

“Who else, besides Putin?”
On the third day of the Russian presidential election, the plebiscite is underway

“Family values” and “stability” at the heart of the Putin vote

Alexeï Navalny's shadow hovered over the presidential vote

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