According to the data from the Central Election Commission of Russia, the current President Vladimir Putin has won the presidential elections with 87.31% support. 99.7% of the election protocols have already been counted.
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According to CEC data, 74.2 million voters voted for Putin. His rivals won a total of less than 13% of the vote. Nikolai Kharitonov, the candidate of the Communist Party of Russia, is in second place, followed by Vladislav Davankov from the New People party in third place, and
Leonid Slutsky, representing the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia, in fourth place.
Putin attributed the high "support" for him to "the dramatic events" the country is experiencing, including the war in Ukraine.
"This is connected to the current situation. We are compelled, quite literally at gunpoint, to defend the interests of our citizens, our people, and to ensure the ideal, sovereign, safe development of the future Russian Federation," said Putin, who is serving his fifth term as president of Russia.
According to official data, the current president garnered the highest support in Chechnya, where 98.99% of voters at the polling stations voted for him. Putin won in Moscow with 85.13% and in the occupied Crimea with 93.6%.
Voter turnout exceeded 74%, which, according to the BBC Russian service, is a record, as well as the rate of support for Putin published by the CEC.
Russian citizens could vote in the presidential elections for three days. On March 17, the last day of voting, thousands of people joined the Afternoon Against Putin protests in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other major cities of Russia. Rally participants were urged to arrive at the polling stations exactly at 12:00 noon and vote for one of Putin's competitors or spoil the ballot. According to the media, more than 80 participants of the rally were arrested in 20 cities.
The call to attend the peaceful demonstration on March 17 was the final political statement of the Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny before his death. Afternoon Against Putin took place in many cities around the world. Russians stood in line for several hours at Russian embassies and consular offices to vote. Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, joined the rally in Berlin.
According to a Meduza publication, some voters made inscriptions on the ballots such as Navalny, Peace, No War, Love is Stronger than Death, etc.
Due to severed diplomatic relations between Russia and Georgia, some Russian citizens in Georgia went to Yerevan and Istanbul to vote, and an anti-Putin demonstration was held in the center of Tbilisi.
Russian presidential elections were also held in the occupied Tskhinvali region and Abkhazia.
