Russia: Putin largely re-elected president, unsurprisingly

by Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin, in power for almost a quarter of a century, was largely and unsurprisingly re-elected as Russian president, the first official results of the election held since Friday showed on Sunday.

Despite symbolic demonstrations by a few thousand opponents at midday in front of certain polling stations, the Russian president was re-elected with 87.8% of the vote, according to an exit poll by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM). ), the highest score ever achieved in a presidential election in post-Soviet Russia. The Russian Center for Public Opinion Research (VCIOM), another polling institute, put forward a score of 87%.

The first official results confirmed this trend.

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Aged 71, Vladimir Putin thus obtains a new six-year mandate and should ultimately surpass Joseph Stalin in longevity in the Kremlin.

The outcome of the vote was in little doubt in the absence of a credible rival among the three other candidates, especially since the main opponent of the Russian president, Alexeï Navalny, died in detention last month.

Supporters of Alexeï Navalny had called the Russians for a “noon against Putin” this Sunday, by all going to the polling stations in the middle of the day.

It was impossible to independently estimate the scale of participation in this protest while tens of thousands of police and members of the security forces exercised strict control over the conduct of the vote.

Reuters journalists noted an influx of voters, young people in particular, at midday at polling stations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, with lines of several hundred or even thousands of people.

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Some of these voters said they came at this time as a sign of protest against Vladimir Putin even though there were few signs distinguishing potential protesters from other citizens.

Turnout was officially estimated at 74.22% at 6:00 p.m. GMT when polling stations closed, a rate higher than the 67.5% in the previous election in 2018.

Rallies of opponents also took place at midday in front of polling stations installed in Russian diplomatic representations in several countries in Europe and Asia.

In Paris, several dozen people gathered at the Trocadéro with slogans such as “Illegitimate Putin” or “Withdrawal of troops from Ukraine”.

Yulia Navalnaïa, widow of Alexeï Navalny, took part in a demonstration in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin, where she voted.

In Russia itself, isolated incidents have punctuated voting operations since Friday, the first day of voting, with the spilling of tinted liquid into ballot boxes or attempts to set fire to polling stations.

This election took place against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, ordered in February 2022 by Vladimir Putin with the launch of a “special military operation” in this country.

Ukraine has in recent days increased attacks on oil refineries in Russia, bombed Russian regions and sought to carry out cross-border incursions via proxy forces.

Reacting quickly after the closing of polling stations in Russia, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky judged that this “sham election” had no legitimacy and accused Vladimir Putin of wanting to stay in power forever.

In the United States, the White House declared that this vote was “obviously neither free nor fair”.

(Written by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow, Andrew Osborn in London and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, with Sarah Meysonnier in Paris; French version Camille Raynaud and Bertrand Boucey)