Russian presidential election: Vladimir Putin re-elected with 87% of votes, according to exit poll

An expected triumph. After three days of voting, early estimates confirm President Vladimir Putin will be re-elected as head of the country this Sunday amid crackdowns, the death of opponent Alexei Navalny and an attack on Ukraine.

Critics of the Russian president, who has led the country for 24 years, wanted to prove themselves by turning out to vote at the same time, at noon on Sunday. In some places crowds of people were visible, in other places the influx was more modest, AFP journalists noted.

This mobilization was generally peaceful, but the NGO OVD-Info reported at least 80 arrests for various forms of election protests.

These protests did not affect the completely predictable outcome of the vote. At 19:00 (Paris time), the first exit poll estimates confirmed the victory of Vladimir Putin with 87.97% of the votes with 24.4% of positions counted.

Elections without real opposition

The 71-year-old president faced three handpicked and minor candidates. The opposition was destroyed by years of repression, which was further intensified by the conflict in Ukraine.

The entire week was also marked by deadly strikes and attempted armed incursions from Ukraine into Russian territory, a response to daily bombings and attacks by Kremlin forces on its neighbor for more than two years.

On Sunday, a sixteen-year-old girl was killed in an air attack on the city of Belgorod, located near the border and very often subject to attacks.

A drone strike blamed on Ukraine also caused a fire at an oil refinery in southern Russia, with regional authorities reporting one death due to a heart attack.

“We must reaffirm our unity”

Despite these attacks, a protracted deadly conflict and increasingly limited freedoms, the Kremlin’s master can count on very real popularity and sees the elections as a demonstration of the unity of the Russians behind him.

“We must reaffirm our unity,” he insisted on Thursday, as he believes the country is the target of a war planned by the West.

It is a vision shared by many of his compatriots. “The actions that the West inflicts on us only unite the Russian people even more,” vows Lyubov Pyankova, a 70-year-old pensioner from St. Petersburg, the head of state’s hometown, to AFP.

To present a united front, it was also important for the Kremlin to ensure a high level of participation. In the evening, participation at the national level was 73.33%, which is a record according to official data.

Vladimir Putin’s main critics have died in prison or in exile. Repression that culminated in the mysterious death of Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison.

Memory of Navalny

Huge queues formed in front of several Russian embassies around the world at the appointed time. Crowds have been particularly strong in Berlin, London and Paris, while tens of thousands of Russians have gone into exile due to repression and military mobilization since the Russian attack on Ukraine began in 2022.

Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of the deceased, who called for people to vote at noon, stood in line all day in the German capital. Posters were waved around her: “No Putin, no war,” “Russia without Putin,” or even “Putin is a killer.”

At the end of the day, her supporters greeted her as she entered the Russian embassy to vote, according to an AFP journalist on the ground. She claims she wrote the name of her late husband Alexei Navalny on her report card.

At the appointed time, some polling stations saw a large influx, while others saw a much more limited influx. “This is the last form of protest where you can express your opinion freely,” said 29-year-old Alexander. “If I didn’t do this, I would feel like a coward.”

Leonid Volkov, a former close ally of Navalny, thanked the crowd: “The world has seen you. Russia is not Putin, Russia is you,” he greeted at X.

Russian diplomatic spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed that the voters who came en masse to the embassies were not opposition supporters, but Russians who came to vote “despite all the threats from the West.”

Ukraine in the background

In Ukraine, although the conflict has likely cost the lives of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, the Kremlin is keen to present a triumphalist picture of recent, limited gains.

Throughout the week, the Russian army has also had to fend off attempted armed incursions from Ukraine, attacks claimed by anti-Putin units claiming to be made up of Russians. The Siberian Battalion group said on Sunday morning that it had entered the Russian village of Gorkovsky.

In addition to drone, missile and artillery attacks, several people have been killed in these regions in recent days, although Russian air defense systems appear to be able to shoot down most of the projectiles.

The Russian army said Sunday it destroyed 35 Ukrainian drones flying over several regions including Moscow overnight. Moscow, for its part, continues to bomb Ukraine. As a result of the strike in Odessa on Friday, 21 people died.