President Vladimir Putin extended his rule over Russia in a landslide election whose final results were never in doubt, signaling on Monday his determination to move deeper into Ukraine and posing new threats against the West.
After the harshest crackdown on dissent since Soviet times, it was clear from the first results that Putin’s rule for nearly a quarter of a century would continue with a fifth term that would give him another six years. Still, Russians responded to the call to protest Putin’s crackdown and his war in Ukraine by showing up at polling stations at noon on Sunday.
After all electoral districts were counted on Monday, election officials said Putin had won a record number of votes, underscoring the Russian leader’s full authority over the country’s political system. Western leaders denounced the election as a farce.
Putin has ruled Russia as president or minister since December 1999, a tenure marked by foreign military aggression and the development of an intolerance toward dissent. By the end of his fifth term, Putin would be Russia’s longest-serving leader since Catherine the Great, who ruled in the 18th century.
Emboldened by his landslide victory, Putin said he planned to create a buffer zone in Ukraine to protect Russia from shelling and cross-border attacks. When asked if an open confrontation between Russia and NATO could erupt, Putin responded dryly by saying, “Anything. “”It’s imaginable in today’s world,” he adds, adding, “It’s clear to everyone that this will move us away from a third, full-scale global war. “
Russian officials said they recruited more than 500,000 volunteers for the military last year, but many expect Putin to mobilize more forces to try to penetrate deeper into Ukraine.
Putin praised the early effects given to him as leader of the company as an indication of “confidence” and “hope” in him, while critics saw them as a reflection of the predetermined nature of the election.
Any public complaints about Putin or his war in Ukraine have been stifled. Independent media have been paralyzed. His fiercest political foe, Alexei Navalny, died in the Arctic last month, and other critics are in exile or in exile.
Voters had no genuine choice against Putin, and independent oversight of the election was incredibly limited.
Russia’s Central Election Commission said on Monday that after counting all electoral districts, Putin had won 87% of the vote. The head of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, said only about 76 million voters had voted for Putin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized elections and voting in regions of his country that Russia has illegally annexed, saying that “everything Russia does in the occupied territory of Ukraine is a crime. “
Germany sharply criticized the vote, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokeswoman, Christina Hoffmann, saying that “in our opinion, these are not democratic elections. “
“Russia, as the chancellor has already said, is now a dictatorship and is ruled authoritarianly by Vladimir Putin,” he told reporters in Berlin.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis also mocked the vote in Russia: “Some speak of a renewal, devoid of any legitimacy. “
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Putin, as did North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the presidents of countries with longstanding ties to Russia, such as Azerbaijan and Belarus.
Navalny’s affiliates suggested those dissatisfied with Putin or the war go to the polls at noon on Sunday, and queues at several polling stations in Russia and its embassies around the world appeared to be swelling until then.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, who spent more than five hours waiting in line at the Russian embassy in Berlin, told reporters she wrote her husband’s call late on his ballot.
Asked if he had a message for Putin, Navalnaya replied: “Please avoid asking for messages from me or anyone else for Mr. Putin. I can’t negotiate or anything with Mr. Putin, because he’s a murderer, he’s a gangster. “
Putin discussed Navalny’s call for the first time in years at the news conference, saying he was in a position to release him as part of an exchange of unidentified detainees held in the West just days before the opposition leader’s death.
Navalny’s supporters flocked to his grave in Moscow and some carried ballots bearing his name.
The Russian leader downplayed the effectiveness of the obvious protest and dismissed Western complaints about the vote. Instead, he tried to turn the West upside down, according to the four corrupt bodies that oppose former President Trump’s judicial formula for political gain.
“Everybody’s laughing at this,” he said.
Some other people told the AP they were happy to vote for Putin, which is not unexpected in a country where state television praises the Russian leader and expressing another opinion is risky.
Dmitry Sergienko, who voted in Moscow, said: “I am satisfied with everything and I want everything to remain as it is now. “
Voting took place over three days at polling stations across the country, in Ukraine’s illegally annexed regions and online.
Several more people were arrested, including in Moscow and St Petersburg, after attempting to set fires or blow up polling stations, while some others were arrested for throwing green antiseptic or ink into ballot boxes. through the police for trying to protest.
The group OVD-Info, which monitors political arrests, said another 90 people were arrested on Sunday in 22 cities across Russia.
Stanislav Andreychuk, co-chairman of the independent election watchdog Golos, said Russians were registered at the front of polling stations, there were attempts to finish ballot boxes before they were abandoned, and a report said police demanded that a ballot box be opened to remove a pollster.
Around noon, huge queues formed outside diplomatic missions in London, Berlin, Paris and other cities with gigantic Russian communities, many of which fled their homes after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“If we have the opportunity to protest, I think it’s vital to seize any opportunity,” said Tatiana, 23, who was voting in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, and said she had come to take part in the protest.
Burrows, Litvinova and Heintz write for the Associated Press.
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