Vladimir Putin promised Friday that Russia would respond to Ukrainian air attacks on its soil, while believing that the recent ground incursions by pro-Ukraine fighters aimed to “disrupt” the progress of the presidential election destined to triumphantly re-elect him.
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At the same time, at least thirteen people were arrested for damage to polling stations, acts for which the precise motives were not made public.
Vladimir Putin, who voted online on Friday, on the first day of the vote intended to re-elect him for 6 years, assured that the Ukrainian strikes against Russian territory, which have intensified in recent days, would not go “unpunished”.
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At the same time, at least 20 people were killed and 70 injured in one of the worst Russian missile attacks on Odessa, the major port city in southern Ukraine already targeted twice in recent days.
Also on Friday, the Russian army also said it had repelled multiple land incursions by fighters from Ukraine since March 12, admitting having had to resort to artillery and aviation.
These attacks constitute an “attempt to disrupt the presidential election,” denounced Mr. Putin.
The vote which runs from Friday to Sunday should see the master of the Kremlin reappointed for an additional mandate of six years, the opposition having been eradicated.
However, it does not go off without a hitch.
Incidents
A woman was arrested after setting fire to a voting booth in Moscow, according to Russian media, while a second, aged 20, tried to throw a Molotov cocktail at a polling station in Saint Petersburg, according to a local manager.
One person was arrested for trying to set fire to a ballot box in Khanty-Mansisk in Siberia and another for trying to light a firecracker at a polling station in the Chelyabinsk region, not far from the Ural Mountains.
Six people were also arrested for pouring dye into ballot boxes near the Russian capital, in Siberia and in the regions of Voronezh (west), Rostov-on-Don (southwest) and Karachay-Cherkessia. , in the Caucasus.
The head of the electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, claimed that these people were acting for money promised by “bastards, from abroad”.
In the occupied part of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, a bomb exploded without causing any casualties in front of a polling station, local authorities denounced, while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned “the efforts of the Russian Federation with a view to organizing its presidential election in the regions of Ukraine that have “illegally” come under its control.
The Moscow prosecutor’s office warned Thursday against any protest action, as no criticism or opposition is tolerated in Russia.
No opposition
On the eve of the presidential election, Vladimir Putin, 71 years old, 24 of whom have been in power, urged his compatriots not to “deviate from the path” in these “difficult” times, an allusion to the consequences of the assault he unleashed against Ukraine more than two years ago.
The outgoing president faces three candidates without scope who oppose neither the offensive in Ukraine nor the repression which eradicated all opposition and culminated with the death in prison in mid-February of Kremlin critic Alexeï Navalny.
Yulia Navalnaïa, who vowed to continue her husband’s fight, for her part called on Russians to protest by voting for any of the candidates with the exception of Putin.
She also asked Russians supporting the opposition to go to the polling stations at the same time, Sunday at 12:00 p.m. (09:00 GMT), to show that there are many of them.
“It’s all a bit wrong”
Voting began at 8:00 a.m. local time on Friday (8:00 p.m. GMT Thursday) on the Kamchatka Peninsula and Chukotka, two remote regions in the Russian Far East. It will end on Sunday at 8:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. GMT) in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave bordering European Union countries.
In a Moscow school, Lioudmila, a 70-year-old retiree, says she wants above all “victory” in Ukraine. For her, this means voting for Vladimir Putin.
But for Nadjeda, 23, “the fact that I am here will not change anything”: “Around me, we are all used to the idea that everything is already decided for us, there is nothing we can do about it,” says this young Moscow ballerina, refusing to give her last name. “It’s all a bit wrong.”
With this election, Vladimir Putin will remain in power until 2030 and will be able to run again to remain in charge until 2036, the year he turns 84.
He had the Constitution revised for this purpose in 2020.
The President of the European Council Charles Michel ironically “congratulated” Mr. Putin on Friday “for his overwhelming victory in the elections which begin today.”
The United States also criticized the election and Ukrainian diplomacy urged the international community to reject this “farce”.
Armed incursions
Ukraine has increased military pressure on the Russian border regions of Belgorod and Kursk, targeted by a multitude of drone attacks and incursions by military units made up of Russians opposed to the Kremlin.
A civilian was killed and two others wounded in Belgorod in a Ukrainian bombardment, according to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, who said earlier that a fighter had also died in another strike.
At the same time, drone attacks are increasing in border regions but also hundreds of kilometers from the front, with Ukraine having promised retaliation for the bombings it has suffered for more than two years.
In Berlin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron displayed their “unity” on Friday on aid to this country, after weeks of strong tensions over the strategy to adopt against Moscow, on the occasion of a summit with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.