The outcome of the Russian presidential election is beyond doubt. Vladimir Putin, who had the Constitution reformed in 2020 to be able to remain in charge of the country until 2036, should be re-elected for a fifth term this Sunday, during the vote organized from March 15 to 17. The first estimates and the results of a poll by a state institute, Vtsiom, should be known shortly after the closing of the last polling stations at 6 p.m. (local time) in the Kaliningrad enclave, and concretize the victory of the master of the Kremlin.
The 71-year-old Russian president faces three hand-picked and insignificant candidates. The opposition has been decimated by years of repression which has further accelerated with the conflict in Ukraine. In order to display a united front, it is also important for the Kremlin to ensure a high participation rate. This Sunday at the start of the afternoon, it stood at 66%, according to official figures.
At least 74 arrested for protesting
At least 74 people were arrested in Russia for having carried out various protest actions during the presidential election, an NGO, OVD-Info, said this Sunday. According to this organization specializing in monitoring repression, the arrests took place mainly in Kazan, in central Russia, and in Moscow, the capital. She specifies that this figure may be revised upwards, as new names come to her.
At noon, voters’ tribute to Navalny
At noon this Sunday, queues formed in front of some polling stations in Moscow. This is indeed the time at which the opposition called to come and honor the memory of the late opponent Alexeï Navalny, and to denounce a presidential election tailor-made for Vladimir Putin. In places, in the capital as in St. Petersburg, the AFP noted an influx, but in other places it was much more modest.
At the polling station at the 2025 school in Moscow, a few dozen people arrived at noon, the appointment set by Yulia Navalnaya for her husband’s supporters for this tribute. It is here that Alexeï Navalny, who died mysteriously in mid-February in a prison in a remote region of the Russian Arctic, had his best score during the municipal election in which he ran in 2013.
Yulia Navalnaya voted at the Russian Embassy in Berlin
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexeï Navalny, appeared this Sunday in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin to vote in the presidential election. Yulia Navalnaya, who promised despite her exile to take up the torch from her late husband, placed herself in the queue in front of the embassy, agreeing to take “selfies” with sympathizers, while not far from there A demonstration was held denouncing the planned reappointment of Vladimir Putin for a new term.
In Paris, thousands of voters in front of the Russian embassy
Thousands of people lined up in Paris, in front of the Russian embassy, this Sunday at noon. In the rain, these voters waited patiently in line for more than 600 meters, AFP noted at 12:30 p.m. “If Vladimir Putin gets 3 to 5% here, it will be a success for him,” quipped Gennady Gudkov. According to this opponent, surprised by the popular mobilization, many voters crossed out their ballot papers. Several Russians interviewed by AFP in the French capital said they would vote for Vladimir Putin.
A few dozen people, many of them carrying the blue and white flag of the Russian opposition, then began a march in the French capital, chanting slogans such as “Putin assassin!” and “Russia against the war!”.
Moldova: incendiary devices thrown at the Russian embassy
Moldovan police announced that they had arrested a man suspected of having thrown two incendiary devices this Sunday against the Russian embassy in Chisinau, where voting for the Russian presidential election was taking place. “A man threw two containers of flammable substances over the fence of the Russian Embassy in Chisinau,” police said in a statement. No injuries were reported.
Media in Moldova, a country bordering Ukraine, claimed the embassy had been targeted with Molotov cocktails. A 54-year-old Moldovan national, who said he also had Russian nationality, was “immediately arrested” and detained for questioning, police added. “He justified his action by a certain dissatisfaction with the actions of the Russian authorities,” she said, ensuring that the investigation was continuing.