Russia validates Putin’s re-election despite criticism

On Thursday, Russia officially confirmed Vladimir Putin’s win in last week’s presidential election. This occurred despite scathing criticism from Western nations and independent Russian observers, who labelled it as the most corrupt election in the post-Soviet era. Russia disregarded these harsh assessments of widespread voter fraud and irregularities during the electoral process that favoured Putin’s re-election victory.

The presidential election in Russia lasted for three days over the past weekend. During this prolonged voting period, Vladimir Putin secured an easy victory that will grant him a fifth term as the Russian president. He faced no significant opposition or challengers during the election process.Notably, the election also took place in the regions of Ukraine that are currently occupied by Russian forces. Voting occurred nearly two years into Russia’s ongoing military offensive and invasion of Ukraine.

According to Russia’s electoral chief Ella Pamfilova, the final results showed that Vladimir Putin won 87.28% of the votes cast in the presidential election. Pamfilova described the election, which will extend Putin’s 24-year rule as president by another six years, as “historic.”She stated that voter turnout was 77.49%. The Kremlin had encouraged Russians to vote out of patriotic duty, despite Putin’s victory being virtually guaranteed. After the final results were published on Thursday, Putin thanked Russians for their “support.”

Pamfilova claimed it was a “very clean” election campaign and dismissed criticism from Western nations. She brushed off allegations of voter fraud and irregularities during the electoral process that overwhelmingly favoured Putin’s re-election.

Despite scathing assessments by independent observers of widespread corruption, Russia has formalized and validated Putin’s fifth term as president through this election.

Thousands took part in the opposition’s call to form long queues at polling stations around midday on the final day of Russia’s presidential election voting, in an act of protest. The election was also marred by incidents of ballot spoiling, where some voters across Russia poured green dye into ballot boxes to invalidate their ballots as a form of dissent.

While electoral chief Ella Pamfilova acknowledged around 30 ballot boxes were stained with green dye, she claimed most of those ballots were still saved and counted. In his victory speech, after the results showed him winning 87.28% of the vote, Vladimir Putin said those who spoiled ballots should face consequences, stating they should be “dealt with.” Underlining this, a court in St. Petersburg had already sentenced a woman to 8 days in jail on Wednesday for deliberately spoiling her ballot during the election. Despite these protests involving long queues and ballot spoiling with dye, Russian authorities dismissed such actions and formalized Putin’s re-election victory for a fifth term amidst criticism of widespread irregularities during the electoral process.