polling stations targeted by several attacks and damage, at least 13 people arrested

Actions aimed at disrupting the vote are increasing in Russia. On Friday March 15, on the first day of the presidential election, a woman set fire to a voting booth in a Moscow polling station, the state agency Ria Novosti reported. “The Moscow election commission told Ria Novosti that the work [dans le bureau de vote] had resumed normally after the incident”, according to the agency. A video broadcast by independent media SOTAVision shows the arrest of a suspect after flames were extinguished in a polling station. Shortly after, the electoral commission announced that a polling station had been targeted by a Molotov cocktail attack in St. Petersburgwithout causing any casualties.

In a polling station located in the occupied region of Kherson, Ukraine, a bomb exploded in front of a polling station. “In Skadovsk, an improvised explosive device was placed in a trash can in front of the polling station. There was a detonation, no casualties”, the regional electoral commission linked to the Russian occupation reported on Telegram. According to her, Ukrainian forces also bombed two local electoral commissions without causing any casualties.

In total, at least 13 people were arrested for damage to polling stations, according to the authorities, who did not specify whether these were protest actions against the re-election of Vladimir Putin. Five of them were “placed in detention” in Moscow and the Voronezh, Rostov and Karachay-Cherkessia regions after spraying with a “coloring liquid” ballots placed in ballot boxes, explained the police in separate press releases. Two other individuals were arrested separately for trying to set fire to a ballot box and trying to light a firecracker in a polling station.