Yulia Navalnaya, wife of deceased Russian opposition member Alexei Navalny arrived at the Russian embassy in Berlin on Sunday (Mar 17) to cast her vote in Russia’s presidential election.
She was welcomed with loud cheers from the crowds when she joined them outside the polling station on the final day of voting, before erupting into a chant of her name.
A large group of people had gathered outside the embassy at noon in the aftermath of calls for midday protests against President Vladimir Putin.
Exiled Navalny supporters broadcast footage of protests inside Russia and abroad on YouTube.
Ruslan Shaveddinov of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation said, “We showed ourselves, all of Russia and the whole world that Putin is not Russia that Putin has seized power in Russia. Our victory is that we, the people, defeated fear, we defeated solitude – many people saw they were not alone.”
Russia’s opposition called for people to collectively spoil their ballots or vote against Putin. Queues, similar to Berlin, were also seen outside polling stations in Moscow and Saint Petersburg at noon.
There was no independent count of how many of Russia’s 114 million voters participated in the opposition protests. The elections were held under extraordinarily tight security with tens of thousands of police and security officers.
Voter turnout data
Voter turnout in the Russian presidential election stood at 65.05 per cent as of 12:50 pm (Moscow time) on Sunday, TASS reported citing live updates from the Central Election Commission.
“[Voter turnout] as the election is going on: 65.05%,” data on the information board of the election authority read. TASS stated that the data excludes the number of online voters though.
The report mentioned that the voter turnout has already beat the 2018 record, as per the election commission’s website and two online voting platforms.
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Putin to tighten grip on power
With the election in the country, Putin is poised to tighten his grip on power as polls are certain to deliver him a landslide victory.
Putin, who rose to power in 1999, is set to win a new six-year term that would enable him to overtake Josef Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader for more than 200 years.
(With inputs from agencies)
