When the last polling stations in Russia closed at eight in the evening Finnish time, the research institute VTsIOM published by the results of its door-to-door survey. The institution is fully state-owned and has often been criticized for conducting pro-state polls.
This poll predicts victory Vladimir Putin winning with 87 percent support. According to the survey, the Communist Party takes second place Nikolai Kharitonov with 4.6 percent, to the third party, New People Vladislav Davankov with 4.2 percent and representing the Liberal Democratic Party in fourth place Leonid Slutsky with the support of three percent.
Only four candidates have been allowed to stand as candidates in these show-like elections. Putin formally ran for office through the electoral association.
VTsIOM says that it has conducted a survey at 1,400 polling stations. According to the institution, 60 percent of the more than 460,000 people who were asked who they voted for in the election answered the survey.
First official results
The Russian Central Election Commission has also published the first official results. According to it, when 24.4 percent of the votes have been counted, Putin’s support is at the level of 87.97 percent.
The second is Nikolai Kharitonov (3.8%), the third is Vladislav Davankov (3.73%) and the fourth is Leonid Slutski (2.96%).
The Central Election Commission also says that Putin collected 89.1 percent of the votes cast electronically in Moscow. The Russian opposition has harshly criticized electronic voting, as independent parties are unable to verify its correctness.
As a voter turnout figure has been notified more than 74 percent.
Elections characterized as fraudulent
In advance, the Russian presidential election has been widely called a play for the consolidation of Putin’s power. Liberal politicians were not allowed to be candidates, the leading figure of the opposition movement Alexei Navalny died during the election campaign in a prison camp, Putin, as usual, did not participate in the election debates.
– Elections are quite important. This is the only way Putin can, as it were, legitimize his own power. And that’s what he will use and remind everyone that he has been elected after all, estimates a researcher familiar with Russia Hannah Smith on the evening news broadcast.
The independent election monitoring organization Golos has reported during the three-day vote on election fraud and violation of election legislation. However, the elections have been widely criticized for, among other things, the lack of genuine alternatives and the fact that Putin ran for office illegally.
Western countries have severely criticized the organization of elections in occupied Ukrainian territories. Many western politicians have characterized the elections as fraudulent even before they started.
Today, the German Foreign Ministry published a strongly worded post on the X service (formerly Twitter). “Mock elections in Russia are neither free nor fair, the result will not surprise anyone. Putin leads in an authoritarian manner, he uses censorship, persecution and violence. “Elections” in the occupied territories are null and void and one more human rights violation,” reads the tweet.
– Even the vestiges of Putin’s legitimacy have disappeared in the West. The big question is how the West will react to his re-election. He will hardly receive congratulations, but it would be quite a big step if the election results were disputed in Western countries. However, I do not assume that this would have much of an effect on the global south that has cooperated with Russia or the world outside the West, said the director of the Alexander Institute to Yelle Markku Kangaspuro.
The opposition protested at the polling stations
The Russian opposition used the opportunity to organize an anti-Putin demonstration at noon today. The idea was to arrive at the polling place at 12 o’clock, so that people could see others who oppose the current Russian government.
The sentiment has been joined by Russians both in Russia and abroad. In front of the Russian embassy in Helsinki, the queue stretched for several hours.
In Moscow, in addition to this sentiment, people took flowers and ballots to the grave of the late Alexei Navalny, who opposed Putin.
In interviews given to both in Moscow and Helsinki, Russians criticized Putin’s power.
– It definitely shows that Putin’s power is not stable. There are many weaknesses in that whole, and actually every month things get worse and people become braver, Hanna Smith describes.