The wife of the late
Russian opposition figure Alexei Navaly joined thousands of
protesters at voting stations on Sunday as they vowed to stand up against
Vladimir Putin during the final day of rigged presidential elections. Yulia Navalnaya, who had endorsed her late husband’s call to flock to the polling stations for the “Noon Against Putin” campaign , waited in line for six hours outside the Russian embassy in
Berlin before casting her vote. She told crowds after she left the building that she had written her husband’s name on the ballot, having waited in a line more than a kilometre long and which snaked through multiple streets. Thousands appeared to heed the call both inside and out of
Russia , as opposition figures claimed they had made their voices heard in the face of
elections without independent observers or any legitimate opponents to Putin. “The real winner of Russia’s ‘election’ today -- Yulia Navalnaya,” said Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Russia under
Barack Obama. “Tens of thousands answered her call and came to the polls today at noon to express their opposition to Putin.” Russian authorities, meanwhile, arrested more than 80 people across 17 cities for taking part in the campaign, independent
Human Rights organisation OVD-Info reported, despite it involving no obvious illegal behaviour. In Ufa, southern Russia, one man said he was detained for attempting to throw a photo of Mr Navalny into a ballot box. He told OVD-Info that the authorities then threatened to charge him with obstructing the work of
election commissions. It came as the first exit polls suggested, predictably, that Putin had won a landslide victory in the presidential elections. Before the results were finalised, Russian politicians began to congratulate Putin on his victory. “Congratulations to all Russia’s enemies on Vladimir Putin’s brilliant victory in the election of the President of the Russian Federation!” wrote former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on
Social Media. “And a thank you to
Friends for the support.” With more than 40 per cent of regions counted, the Russian Central Election Commision claimed Putin had received more than 87.5 per cent of the vote. In occupied
Ukraine , where armed Russian soldiers were seen looming over Ukrainian civilians in the polling stations, the commission claimed more than 90 percent of voters had signed for Putin. It was widely expected that Putin would not only win these rigged elections but that he would improve on his previous victory in 2018, in which he received more than 76 per cent of the vote. In 2012, he received 63.6 per cent of the vote. “The difference between these elections and previous ones: this time they decided not to even count,” joked exiled Russian opposition politician Lyubov Sobol. “Previously, they somehow still calculated and adjusted.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky , who has not spoken to his Russian counterpart since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, said the autocrat had become “sick with power”. “These days, the Russian dictator imitates another ‘elections’,” he said. “Everyone in the world understands that this person, like many others throughout history, has become sick with power and will stop at nothing to rule forever. “Everything Russia does in Ukraine’s occupied territories is a crime. This imitation of ‘elections’ has no legitimacy and cannot have any. This person must end up on the dock in The Hague.”