Some 112 million Russian voters are expected to vote between now and Sunday to choose their new president. Vladimir Putin is sure to win.
Second day of voting this Saturday for Russian voters (a third day is planned for this Sunday) for a vote that is a foregone conclusion. Because there is no doubt that Vladimir Putin, 71, will be re-elected for a sixth term, no credible opponent having been authorized to run against him.
One figure, however, will be closely monitored by the Kremlin: the participation rate. On Saturday it stood at around 40%. More than 112 million voters in total were called for this presidential election.
Electoral operations therefore continued despite recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil, and Russian bombings in Ukraine.
Unlike Friday, where here and there, rare opponents denounced, in their own way, an electoral sham (here a ballot box was set on fire and there a voter threw ink on ballot papers), no incident occurred. has been reported at this stage.
If the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, slipped her ballot into one of the voting stations in Moscow, the Russian President and his Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin voted online.
Russians abroad are also invited to have their say. In Prague, many people queued in front of the Russian embassy on Friday. Some voters reportedly protested because the embassy was only open for voting for one day.
As for the Russian opposition, some have expressed the wish to only go to the polling stations at midday on Sunday as a protest against Vladimir Putin and against the war in Ukraine.