Vladimir Putin, re-elected for six more years in the Kremlin according to the partial results of an unopposed presidential election, painted a portrait of a Russia “consolidated” by its victory and which will not allow itself to be “intimidated” by its adversaries.
The master of the Kremlin, in power for almost a quarter of a century, collected more than 87% of the votes after counting 80% of the polling stations, according to the electoral commission. This is his best result, following a vote from which the opposition was excluded.
Addressing Russians late in the evening, Mr. Putin thanked those who went to vote and who helped create the conditions for “internal political consolidation,” two years after the start of the assault on Ukraine and the adoption of unprecedented sanctions by the West.
“I want to thank you all, as well as all the citizens of the country, for your support and your trust,” he told his campaign team, before promising that Russia will stand up to all its adversaries.
“It doesn’t matter who wants to bully us or how much, it doesn’t matter who wants to crush us or how much, our will or our conscience. No one has ever managed to do something like this in history. It did not work today and will not work in the future,” said the 71-year-old president.
This three-day election, from Friday to Sunday, was marked by deadly Ukrainian bombings and incursions by armed fighters claiming to be pro-Ukraine Russians into Russian border regions, as well as by protest actions in the offices of vote.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Mr. Putin was a man “drunk with power” who wants to “reign forever” and British Foreign Minister David Cameron deplored the lack of “free and fair” elections in Russia. The United States criticized the holding of the vote in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Moscow.
Navalny’s death a “sad event”
Vladimir Putin, who will be able to run again after this new mandate to potentially remain in power until 2036, praised in his speech the soldiers fighting in Ukraine, who “risk their lives” to “protect the historic territories of Russia”. .
He estimated that the Russian forces, on the offensive since the capture of Avdiïvka in mid-February against a Ukrainian army lacking men and ammunition, had “complete initiative” on the front.
In Russia, the authorities left no room for opponents of power: the other three candidates selected were all in line with the Kremlin, whether it was Ukraine or the repression that culminated in death of Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison in February.
Vladimir Putin assured Monday that the death of his main detractor was a “sad event” and that he had been favorable to the idea of exchanging him with the West. “There was only one condition: that we trade him so that he doesn’t come back,” he said.
For this presidential election, the widow of Vladimir Putin's No. 1 detractor, Yulia Navalnaïa, called on her supporters to show up in numbers by all going to vote at the same time, at noon on Sunday, against the master of the Kremlin. She herself voted after several hours of waiting in a huge crowd at the Russian embassy in Berlin.
“I wrote [on the ballot] the name “Navalny” because it is not possible [...] that a month before the elections, the main opponent of Putin, already imprisoned, would be killed “, she told the press after voting.
Vote at noon as a sign of opposition
Outside many other Russian embassies, large crowds turned out to vote at midday across the world, with tens of thousands of Russians having gone into exile since the start of the assault on Ukraine due to repression and fear to be mobilized into the army.
Alexei Navalny's team said that Vladimir Putin's score in the Russian presidential election had "no connection with reality."
In places in Moscow, as in St. Petersburg, large queues formed at the appointed time. But in front of other polling stations, the crowds did not seem particularly high.
In the Moscow district of Marino, in front of the office where Alexeï Navalny once voted, a few dozen people responded to the call.
“I was able to meet a few people, talk to them, and I felt that they thought the same thing as me. I'm not alone,” explains Olga, 52, before leaving with her son to pay their respects at the grave of the opponent, buried in the neighborhood.
Tributes to Navalny
In the cemetery, dozens of people marched, placing fresh flowers on the grave as well as bulletins to which Navalny's name had been added.
Overall, the mobilization of the opposition took place calmly but the NGO OVD-Info, specializing in monitoring repression, reported at least 85 arrests in Russia for various forms of electoral protest actions.
Vladimir Putin, for his part, assured that the opposition's actions had had "no effect" on the vote, while threatening criminal prosecution for those who spoiled their ballots.
Hostilities in Ukraine were also included in the vote. The election week was marked by deadly airstrikes and attempted ground incursions from Ukraine into Russian territory, responses to Russia's daily bombings and assaults against its neighbor for more than two years.
On Sunday morning, a 16-year-old girl was killed in an air attack on the town of Belgorod, close to the border and very often targeted. In the afternoon, another person died and 19 were injured in the same region, according to authorities.
