Russia began three days of voting on Friday for the presidential election, the almost certain outcome of which will be the reappointment of President Vladimir Putin for six more years at the head of the country.
On the first day of the Russian presidential election, actions targeted polling stations. According to the authorities, at least 13 people were arrested for damage or arson attacks.
Several people poured green liquid into the ballot boxes, one in reference to the recently deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who in 2017 was attacked by an assailant, who sprayed his face with green disinfectant.
Voting is taking place until Sunday at polling stations across the vast country’s 11 time zones, in parts of Ukraine’s occupied regions and online. According to the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin voted online.
This election, the outcome of which, according to experts, is known in advance, is taking place in a context of strong repression. Independent media and prominent rights groups were censored, giving the Russian president complete control of the political system.
A war context
It also comes as Moscow’s war in Ukraine enters its third year. Russia has the advantage on the battlefield, where it is making small, if slow, advances.
Ukraine, meanwhile, has left Moscow vulnerable behind the front line with long-range drone attacks inside Russia and high-tech drone assaults that have put its Black Sea Fleet on the defensive.
Russian regions bordering Ukraine have reported increased bombings and repeated attacks this week by Ukrainian forces, which Mr Putin described on Friday as an attempt to frighten residents and derail voting.
“These enemy attacks have not and will not be left unpunished“, he promised during a meeting of his Security Council.
“I am sure that our people, the Russian people, will react with even more cohesion” said Mr. Putin. “Who did they decide to scare ? The Russian people ? This has never happened and will never happen.”
Authorities said the vote was taking place in an orderly manner. But in St. Petersburg, a woman threw a Molotov cocktail onto the roof of a school housing a polling station, local media reported.
The deputy head of Russia’s Central Election Commission said people poured green liquid into ballot boxes in five locations, including Moscow.
News sites also reported on Telegram messaging that a woman in Moscow had set fire to a voting booth. Such acts are incredibly risky, as election interference is punishable by up to five years in prison.
No opposition
Vladimir Putin, 71, is seeking a fifth term virtually unopposed. His political opponents are either in prison or in exile; Navalny, the most vocal of them, died in an Arctic penal colony last month. The other three candidates in the running are low-profile politicians from token opposition parties that support the Kremlin line.
Observers have little expectation that the election will be free and fair.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, joked on Friday about the predetermined nature of the vote. I would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his landslide victory in the elections that begin today. No opposition. No freedom. No choice” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
In addition to voters having few options, the possibilities for independent oversight are very limited.
No observers present
No significant international observers were present. Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have not been invited, and only registered candidates or state-backed advisory bodies can send observers to polling stations, reducing the likelihood to have independent guard dogs. As the vote takes place over three days in nearly 100,000 polling stations, it is in any case difficult to carry out real surveillance.
“Russia’s elections as a whole are a sham. The Kremlin controls who is on the ballot. The Kremlin controls how they can campaign. Not to mention the ability to control every aspect of the vote and the process vote counting” said Sam Greene, director of democratic resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington.
Ukraine and the West also condemned Russia for organizing voting in Ukrainian regions that Moscow’s forces seized and occupied.
In many ways, Ukraine is at the heart of this election, according to political analysts and opposition figures. They say Mr. Putin wants to use his almost assured election victory as proof that the war and his handling of it enjoy broad support. The opposition, for its part, hopes to use the vote to demonstrate its discontent with the war and the Kremlin.
Opponents call to vote against Putin
Russia’s scattered opposition urged people unhappy with Mr. Putin or the war to turn out to vote at noon on Sunday, the final day of voting, in protest. This strategy was approved by Mr Navalny shortly before his death.
“We must take advantage of election day to show that we exist, that we are numerous, that we are real, living people, and that we are against Putin….It is up to you to decide what you are going to do. You can vote for any candidate, except Putin. You can spoil your ballot.”said his widow, Yulia Navalnaya.
The effectiveness of this strategy remains uncertain.
Golos, the well-known group of independent election observers in Russia, said in a report released this week that authorities were “doing everything so that people do not notice the very fact of the election.”
The watchdog called the campaign leading up to the vote “practically imperceptible” and of ““most tasteless” since 2000, when Golos was founded and began monitoring elections in Russia.
Mr. Putin’s campaign was masked by presidential activities and the other candidates demonstrated a “obvious passivity“, according to the report.
According to Golos, state media devoted less airtime to the election than in 2018, when Mr. Putin was last elected. Instead of promoting voting to ensure desired turnout, authorities appear to be banking on pressuring voters they can control – for example, Russians who work in state-run businesses or institutions – to ensure that “They’re showing up at the polls,” the group said.
The watchdog itself has been implicated in the crackdown: Its co-chair, Grigory Melkonyants, is in prison awaiting trial on charges widely seen as an attempt to pressure the group ahead of the election.
“The current elections will not be able to reflect the real mood of the people,” Golos said in his report.
The distance between citizens and decision-making on the destiny of the country has become greater than ever.