A start to the election marked by numerous incidents. While the polls opened this Friday, March 15 for the Russian presidential election, which should see Vladimir Putin very widely re-elected this Sunday, several attacks were carried out against polling stations.
In particular, a bomb exploded without causing any casualties in front of a polling station in the Kherson region, occupied by Russia in southern Ukraine. “In Skadovsk, an improvised explosive device was placed in a trash can in front of the polling station. There was an detonation, no casualties,” the regional electoral commission linked to the Russian occupation said on Telegram. According to her, Ukrainian forces also bombed two local electoral commissions without causing any casualties.
The independent Russian newspaper Novaia Gazeta relayed images of several of these incidents on these social networks. A woman’s throwing dye in a ballot box at a polling station in Moscow, upon sending of a molotov cocktail in Saint Petersburg, or even burning ballot boxes in Moscow or in the Ural regionactions are increasing this Friday, while the opposition to the Kremlin regime has been searching in recent days for the most effective mode of action to show their anger.
The Russian authorities, for their part, confirmed some of these incidents. Thus, eight people were arrested for damage to polling stations, the authorities indicated in separate press releases. A woman was arrested after setting fire to a voting booth in Moscow, according to Russian media. Five people were allegedly “placed in detention” in Moscow and the regions of Voronezh, Rostov and Karachay-Cherkessia after having sprayed ballots in ballot boxes with a “coloring liquid”. Finally, one person was arrested for trying to set fire to a ballot box in Khanty-Mansisk in Siberia, and another for trying to light a firecracker in a polling station in the Chelyabinsk region.