Record turnout as Vladimir Putin wins six more years in power

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President Vladimir Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia’s election on Monday, cementing his grip on power though thousands of opponents staged a noon protest at polling stations and the United States said the vote was neither free nor fair.
The early result means Putin, 71, will easily secure a new six-year term that would enable him to overtake Josef Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader for more than 200 years.
Putin won 87.8 per cent of the vote, the highest-ever result in Russia’s post-Soviet history, according to an exit poll by pollster the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM). The Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) put Putin on 87 per cent. First official results indicated the polls were accurate.

Communist candidate Nikolai Kharitonov came second with just under 4 per cent, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third, and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, results suggested.

People enter and exit polling booth curtains.

A man exits from voting cabin during Russia presidential elections in Russian Embassy in Chisinau, Moldova, 17 March 2024. Source: EPA / Dumitru Doru

‘Noon against Putin’

Thousands of people turned up at polling stations across Russia to take part in what the anti-Kremlin opposition says is a peaceful but symbolic political protest against the re-election of President Vladimir Putin.

In an action called “Noon against Putin,” Russians who oppose the veteran Kremlin leader went to their local polling station at midday to either spoil their ballot paper in protest or to vote for one of the three candidates standing against Putin, who is widely expected to win by a landslide.

Others had vowed to scrawl the name of , on their ballot paper.

Navalny’s allies broadcast videos on YouTube of lines of people queuing up at different polling stations across Russia at midday who they said were there to peacefully protest.

Woman in coat flanked by reporters as she walks outside.

Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, leaves the Russian embassy after casting her ballot in the Russian presidential elections in Berlin, Germany. Source: EPA / Hannibal Hanschke

Navalny had endorsed the “Noon against Putin” plan in a message on social media facilitated by his lawyers before he died.

Britain’s foreign minister David Cameron on Sunday dismissed early results from Russia indicating that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been comfortably re-elected.

“The polls have closed in Russia, following the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory, a lack of choice for voters and no independent OSCE monitoring,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.

The White House said Russia’s elections were “obviously not free nor fair” given how Putin has imprisoned opponents and prevented others from running against him.

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