Putin Claims Election Victory

By Stefan J. Bos 

In an election condemned by Washington as “obviously not free nor fair,” Putin has more than 87 percent of the vote, according to exit polls by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center and the Public Opinion Foundation.

As the exit polls came in, Putin was quick to declare victory. Referring to the war in Ukraine, he said that the victory “has to do with the dramatic events that the country is going through. With the current situation, with the fact that we fight with weapons.”

He added “This unity will allow us to act effectively on the frontline, in the economy, humanitarian development, achieving the goals of social development projects.”

Putin said, “We have huge development plans. People felt that and came to create the conditions for development and the strengthening of their Fatherland - Russia.”

Not everyone agreed.

In Asbest in central Russia, plumes of smoke rose out of a polling station. It was among several polling stations hit by arson attacks.

More attacks

Protests also included pouring dye into ballot boxes and arson attacks at polling stations, with police detaining several people.

Neighboring Ukraine, which Putin’s Russian army has invaded, also branded the vote a "farce" and launched a barrage of attacks inside Russia that reportedly killed several people.

Some drones were apparently shot down. But car traffic was briefly suspended over the bridge connecting Crimea, and three Moscow airports were forced to suspend flights, with at least one building being hit by a drone.

Early on Sunday, a drone attack caused a fire at a refinery at Slavyansk in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia, where officials said one person died of a heart attack.

Separately, authorities said two people died after drone strikes in the Russian city of Belgorod on Saturday.

The Russian defense ministry reported 35 Ukrainian drone incursions, including four in the Moscow region and two in the neighboring Kaluga and Yaroslavl regions.

More Ukrainian drones attacked in the Belgorod, Kursk, and Rostov regions bordering Ukraine and in the southern Krasnodar region.

Panic, distrust

The governor of Russia's Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has accused Ukraine of trying to "sow panic, distrust, anger, and resentment to break the unit of our society."

Pro-Ukrainian paramilitaries also claimed to be escalating attacks and incursions in Russian border regions.

Three pro-Kyiv volunteer groups -- claiming to consist of anti-Kremlin Russians who have taken up arms -- called on authorities to evacuate civilians from the regions of Belgorod and Kursk.

Despite overwhelming evidence of attacks, Russia’s military has denied militias' claims to have gained ground. The National Guard said its units had beaten back one such attack near the village of Tyotkino in Kursk.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said it halted another attack by Ukrainian forces trying to enter Belgorod via the village of Spodariushino without saying when the clash had happened.

Yet the fighting did little to prevent voting in the world’s largest country by size, divided over 11 time zones. Ahead of the vote, authorities blocked the few genuine competitors who tried to stand in the contest. Those on the ballot box are seen as no real threats to Putin as they all support his policies.

Russian authorities warned against protests during the presidential vote after calls from the opposition for anti-Putin demonstrations on Sunday.

No Navalny

The presidential election was held without Alexei Navalny, Putin's most high-profile opponent over the last decade, who died at age 47 in February in an Arctic prison colony.

Navalny was jailed for 19 years on charges of "extremism," a sentence seen by his family and supporters as retribution for his campaign against Putin, who has led Russia for 24 years. Critics, including Navalny’s widow, urged voters to protest.

Yet, as he cast his ballot online, the 71-year-old Kremlin leader suggested that he is the right man to continue leading a nation armed with nuclear weapons that he hasn’t ruled out using against Western targets.

“We have already shown that we can be together, defending the freedom, sovereignty, and security of Russia,” Putin said in a separate video message, flanked by flags of the Russian tricolor and the president’s state emblem. “Today, it is critically important not to stray from this path,” he added.

With all of his influential critics dead, jailed, or in exile, Russian President Putin is now cementing his role as the nation’s longest-ruling leader since the late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.