Putin declares sham victory as thousands join Navalny widow – Russia Ukraine latest

The opposition’s call to protest against Vladimir Putin had been successful, claimed Ivan Zhdanov, the head of the Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, as protesters lined up outside Russia’s diplomatic missions in London, Berlin, Paris, Milan, Belgrade and other cities with large Russian communities.

Protesters in Berlin displayed a figure of Mr Putin bathing in blood with the Ukrainian flag on the side, alongside shredded ballots in ballot boxes.Russian state television and officials said the lines abroad showed strong turnout.

In Tallinn, where hundreds stood in a line snaking around the Estonian capital’s cobbled streets leading to the Russian Embassy, 23-year-old Tatiana said she came to take part in the protest.“If we have some option to protest I think it’s important to utilize any opportunity,” she said, only giving her first name.

Boris Nadezhdin, a liberal politician who tried to join the race on an anti-war platform but was barred from running by election officials, voiced hope that many Russians cast their ballots against Putin.“I believe that the Russian people today have a chance to show their real attitude to what is happening by voting not for Putin, but for some other candidates or in some other way, which is exactly what I did,” he said after voting in Dolgoprudny, a town just outside Moscow.

Despite tight controls, several dozen cases of vandalism at polling stations were reported across the voting period in Russia.

Several people were arrested, including in Moscow and St Petersburg, after they tried to start fires or set off explosives at polling stations while others were detained for throwing green antiseptic or ink into ballot boxes.

The OVD-Info group that monitors political arrests said that 80 people were arrested in 20 cities across Russia yesterday.

Stanislav Andreychuk, co-chair of the Golos independent election watchdog, said that pressure on voters from law enforcement had reached unprecedented levels.

Russians, he said in a social media post, were searched when entering polling stations, there were attempts to check filled-out ballots before they were cast, and one report said police demanded a ballot box be opened to remove a ballot.

“It’s the first time in my life that I’ve seen such absurdities,” Mr Andreychuk wrote on the messaging app Telegram, adding that he started monitoring elections in Russia 20 years ago.

Supporters of Alexei Navalny streamed to his grave in Moscow, some bringing ballots with his name written on them.

Meduza, Russia’s biggest independent news outlet, published photos of ballots it received from their readers, with “killer” inscribed on one, “thief” on another and “The Hague awaits you” on yet another.

The last refers to an arrest warrant for Putin from the International Criminal Court that accuses him of personal responsibility for abductions of children from Ukraine.

Some people told the AP that they were happy to vote for Mr Putin — unsurprising in a country where independent media have been hobbled, state TV airs a drumbeat of praise for the Russian leader and voicing any other opinion is risky.

Dmitry Sergienko, who cast his ballot in Moscow, said, “I am happy with everything and want everything to continue as it is now.”

“As for Mr Navalny,” Mr Putin said, “Yes, he passed away. This is always a sad event.”

Read more on what he said about Navalny in this report from my colleague Tom Watling:

Vladimir Putin dismissed the effectiveness of the “Noon against Putin” protest as he claimed victory in Russia’s sham presidential election on Sunday.“There were calls to come vote at noon.

And this was supposed to be a manifestation of opposition. Well, if there were calls to come vote, then … I praise this,” he said at a news conference after polls closed.

Some Russians waiting to vote in Moscow and St Petersburg told the Associated Press that they were taking part in the protest, but it wasn’t possible to confirm whether all of those in line were doing so.

One woman in Moscow, who said her name was Yulia, told the AP that she was voting for the first time.

“Even if my vote doesn’t change anything, my conscience will be clear … for the future that I want to see for our country,” she said. Like others, she didn’t give her full name because of security concerns.

Another Moscow voter, who also identified himself only by his first name, Vadim, said he hoped for change, but added that “unfortunately, it’s unlikely.”

From the hush of isolated Siberian villages to the clamor of big cities to war battered towns in occupied parts of Ukraine, Russians voted in a presidential election overwhelmingly dominated by Vladimir Putin.

With ballots counted from about 30% of precincts on Sunday evening, Putin was clearly headed for victory, notching more than 85% of the vote, according to the national election commission.

Putin’s glide to another six-year tem was never in doubt.

Donald Trump has refused to blame Vladimir Putin for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“I don’t know,” the former president said while appearing on Fox News, as the host asked him if the Russian president was responsible for the untimely demise of his fiercest critic.

“Something happened that was unusual,” Mr Trump said.

The former president refused to be definitive even on being pressed about Navalny’s previous assassination attempt by poisoning.

“I don’t know. You certainly can’t say for sure,” he said. “But certainly that would look like something very bad happened.”

It comes just days after it was revealed that an RAF jet transporting Mr Shapps back to England from Poland earlier this week had its GPS signal jammed while flying over the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Alexei Navalny, called Vladimir Putin a “killer” and a “gangster”, as she joined scores of Russians unhappy with his regime lining up to vote on Sunday afternoon at polling stations both in Russia and at its embassies around the world.

She spent more than five hours in the line and told reporters after casting her vote that she wrote her late husband’s name on the ballot.

Asked whether she had a message for Mr Putin, Ms Navalnaya replied: “Please stop asking for messages from me or from somebody for Mr Putin. There could be no negotiations and nothing with Mr Putin, because he’s a killer, he’s a gangster.”

Any public criticism of Vladimir Putin or his war in Ukraine has been stifled. Independent media have been crippled. His fiercest political foe, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month, and other critics are either in jail or in exile.

Beyond the fact that voters had virtually no choice, independent monitoring of the election was extremely limited.

Any public criticism of Vladimir Putin or his war in Ukraine has been stifled. Independent media have been crippled. His fiercest political foe, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month, and other critics are either in jail or in exile.

Beyond the fact that voters had virtually no choice, independent monitoring of the election was extremely limited. According to Russia’s Central Election Commission, Mr Putin had some 87 per cent of the vote with about 90 per cent of precincts counted.

Reiterating the concerns, British foreign secretary David Cameron wrote on X: “The polls have closed in Russia, following the illegal holding of elections on Ukrainian territory, a lack of choice for voters and no independent OSCE monitoring. This is not what free and fair elections look like.”