Vote to cement Putin’s rule amid Ukraine attacks, Navalny protests
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia voted Sunday on the final day of an election to extend Vladimir Putin’s rule to three decades, as Ukraine launched fresh drone attacks and some Russians spoiled their ballots in protest.
The three-day vote had already been marred by a surge in fatal Ukrainian bombardment, incursions into Russian territory by pro-Kyiv sabotage groups and vandalism at polling stations.
The Kremlin has cast the election as an opportunity for Russians to show they are behind the assault on Ukraine, where voting is also being staged in Russian-held areas.
Ukraine has repeatedly denounced the vote as illegitimate and asked its Western allies not to recognise Putin’s inevitable new six-year mandate.
Supporters of the late Alexei Navalny, Putin’s most prominent rival who died in an Arctic prison last month, urged voters to crowd into polling stations at noon and spoil their ballots for a “Midday Against Putin” protest.
At least some voters appeared to heed that call at Moscow polling stations, telling AFP they had come to honour Navalny’s memory and show their opposition in the only legal way possible.
But other voters expressed their support for Putin, saying that casting their ballots for him was the only way to guarantee peace.
At Navalny’s grave in a Moscow cemetery, AFP reporters saw spoiled ballot papers with his name written on them left on a pile of flowers.
Navalny, who galvanised mass protests, tried to run against Putin in the 2018 presidential election but his candidacy was rejected.
The 71-year-old Putin, a former KGB agent, has been in power since the last day of 1999 and is set to extend his grip over the country until at least 2030.