Election in Russia – Putin is predicted to be the election winner – protests in Bern and Geneva – News

  • According to post-election surveys, incumbent Vladimir Putin can expect 87.8 percent of the vote.
  • Russian state television declared the 71-year-old incumbent president the winner after the polls closed.
  • After almost 50 percent of the votes cast were counted, Putin had a share of 87.34 percent, as Russian media reported from the Central Election Commission.

This means that the 71-year-old Putin gained more than ten percentage points compared to the 2018 election (76.7 percent). It is considered the best result he has ever achieved as he begins his fifth term in office.

Vladimir Putin on election victory and Navalny


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Legend:

Vladimir Putin speaks in Moscow after the election commission predicted his victory (03/18/24)

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

The Russian president sees his re-election as a mandate to strengthen the country. His election victory shows that it was right to take the current path, the president said on Sunday evening.

Russia can now become stronger and more efficient. He will “consolidate” society and then no one will oppress Russia anymore. He is sure that all goals will be achieved.

Referring to developments in Ukraine, Putin said Russian armed forces are making progress every day. Nevertheless, the army must be strengthened.

Possible release of Navalny discussed

With regard to the recently deceased Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, Putin said that a few days before his death, he, Putin, was told that there was the idea of ​​exchanging Navalny for people imprisoned in the West.

He, Putin, agreed to such an exchange. And he said that Navalny should never return to Russia. The 47-year-old Navalny was sentenced to decades in prison in Russia and died in a prison camp in northern Russia in mid-February. (Reuters)

Voter turnout was reported at over 74 percent – ​​also a record. It was the highest number in a Russian presidential election. However, critics pointed out that it was only achieved through repression, coercion and fraud.

Protest action “Lunch against Putin”

Around 400 Russians from western Switzerland arrived in Geneva at lunchtime. Most of them followed the call of the widow of the dead opposition figure Alexei Navalny to go to the polls at the same time at noon.

Election without opposition


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The election in Russia is classified as undemocratic because no real opposition candidates were allowed. In addition, there is no freedom of assembly in Russia and the Kremlin-controlled media is in line. Independent media are politically persecuted. Dissenters who criticize Putin’s war against Ukraine or the power apparatus risk punishment and even imprisonment.

Putin’s three competitors were not only all on the Kremlin’s political line, but were also considered to have no chance from the start. After the polls closed, the communist Nikolai Kharitonov was awarded less than four percent of the vote, according to initial results; Vladislav Dawankov from the liberal New People party was also below four percent. The ultranationalist Leonid Slutsky achieved around three percent.

In Bern, around a thousand eligible voters protested against incumbent Vladimir Putin. The queue in front of the Russian embassy in Bern was several hundred meters long, as a reporter from the Keystone-SDA news agency reported.

Protests in Geneva and Bern

At the “Lunch Against Putin” protest, voters should give their vote to every candidate except Putin. Several people counted the voters in line in Geneva. They want to verify the figures provided by the Kremlin.

In the last presidential election in Russia six years ago, only around 900 Russians took part in the election throughout Switzerland. Today there are around 16,000 Russians living in Switzerland.

Criticism of online voting

In Russia, following the opposition’s call, thousands of Putin’s opponents gathered at many polling stations in Russia around lunchtime to show that they do not want to see the Kremlin leader in office for another six years.

Appearance of opposition politician Nadezhdin


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The opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin, who was excluded from the presidential election, took part in the peaceful protest “Lunch against Putin” in the Russian capital Moscow.

At the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, where polling stations are set up, he was greeted with great applause by students, as a video he published on Telegram shows.

“I think you will still have the chance to vote for me,” he told those gathered. He announced that he would publish his own post-election surveys after the polling stations closed. Their results differed greatly from what the authorities expected, said Nadezhdin.

No admission to vote

As a declared opponent of the war, Nadezhdin caused a stir in January when thousands of Russians lined up to sign for him.

According to his own information, the 60-year-old Nadezhdin was able to collect twice the required 100,000 signatures from supporters. Nevertheless, the Kremlin-controlled election commission excluded the liberal from the election.

The electoral commission stated that there were allegedly too many incorrect signatures in random samples. Russian courts rejected Nadezhdin’s appeal against his exclusion from the election.

The electoral commission in Moscow has announced that turnout is now higher than in the last election in 2018. The previous figure of 67.54 percent was exceeded at 11:50 a.m. CET, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.

According to civil rights activists, dozens of people have been arrested during anti-Kremlin protests. In total, the Ovd-Info organization counted more than 80 arrests across the country by Sunday afternoon – around 30 of them in the city of Kazan. Citizens in Moscow and St. Petersburg were also affected.

The election for President Vladimir Putin’s fifth term in office was scheduled for three days for the first time. This should also give more voters the chance to cast their votes. In addition, millions of people voted online – reportedly partly due to pressure from the authorities. According to the Moscow Election Commission, 7.74 million people used online voting by 11 a.m. CET, which corresponds to a voter turnout of almost seven percent.

Elections in Russia – protests in Europe

Independent observers criticize the fact that many citizens were pushed to the polls by their state employers. Not only is that illegal, the voters’ reported request to send photos of their ballot papers to superiors is also considered a violation of Russian electoral law.

Reports: Woman seriously injured during protest


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According to media reports, a woman set off fireworks at a polling station and seriously injured herself. The 64-year-old from the city of Perm caused the explosion in the building’s toilet and tore off her own hand, reports the Telegram channel “Baza”. According to media, regional authorities confirmed an emergency at the polling station and said that the woman had been taken to hospital.

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