Russian officials reported the detention of several individuals for acts of vandalism at polling stations during the first day of the presidential elections. Several reported instances included pyrotechnics being detonated inside polling places and vote boxes being filled with green dye and set on fire.
It is expected that Vladimir Putin will win a second six-year term after the election. Despite this, officials urged law enforcement to remain alert. Voting in Russia is scheduled to take place over three days, concluding on March 17. State-run media reported a 23% turnout in Moscow by late afternoon.
The majority of the incidents occurred at polling stations in Moscow, Voronezh in southern Russia, and the region of Karachay-Cherkessia in the North Caucasus. Russia also enforced the vote in occupied areas of Ukraine. In the small town of Skadovsk, Russian-appointed officials reported an improvised device exploding in a rubbish bin outside a polling station. However, no injuries were reported.
At least eight individuals were arrested, although officials have not confirmed whether these acts of vandalism were protests against Vladimir Putin. Vote boxes were allegedly vandalised and pro-Ukrainian chants were shouted in some of the videos that were shared on Telegram.
On March 15, Russia's Central Election Committee deputy chairman Nikolay Bulayev announced that there had been five cases of liquids being poured into voting boxes. The liquid was "brilliant green" dye, an antiseptic solution that is frequently used in protests in Russia and Ukraine.
Election Commission chief Ella Pamfilova stated that some of those detained for vandalising the boxes with dye confessed to doing it for financial gain. They could face up to five years in prison. One of the detainees was allegedly promised RUB 100,000 ($1,080).
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Putin’s most vocal critic, urged Kremlin opponents to protest en masse at polling stations at noon on March 17. Her husband, Alexei Navalny, passed away suddenly in an Arctic Prison last month. Navalnaya called on the West not to recognise Putin’s fifth term as president, and NATO’s secretary general has stated that the vote will not be free and fair.
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