Xavier Colas Moscow
Moscow
Updated Sunday, March 17, 2024-19:06
Elections in Russia "All at noon": Russians form symbolic queues to protest against Putin
Direct Witness Insults on the ballot against an inevitable Putin
As the Russian regime had predicted, Vladimir Putin has declared himself the winner in the votes organized throughout the country to prolong his power for up to a third of a century.
The Russian president has obtained 87% of the votes.
Putin, who came to power in 1999, has won a new six-year term.
If he completes it,
he would become the longest-serving leader of Russia
in more than 200 years.
The Kremlin was looking for a broad victory to present as Russian support for the war, but it also wanted a high turnout as legitimization of a personalist regime with no alternatives.
Over the previous two days, there were scattered incidents of protest as some Russians
set fire to voting booths
and poured anise into ballot boxes, prompting threats from Russian officials who called them traitors and threatened them with jail terms.