President Vladimir V. Putin on Sunday extended his rule in Russia until 2030, using a heavily staged presidential election with no real competition to illustrate overwhelming public support for his domestic rule and invasion of Ukraine.
Some Russians tried to turn the anti-democratic vote into a protest, forming long lines at polling stations at a pre-arranged time – noon – to register their displeasure. At the same time, Ukraine tried to cast its own vote by launching a volley of explosive drones at Moscow and other targets.
But the Kremlin shrugged off those challenges and released results after the polls closed, claiming Mr Putin had won 87% of the vote – an even higher number than in the four previous elections he contested.
Mr. Putin then took a long, televised victory lap, including a rousing, after-midnight press conference in which he commented on the death of jailed opposition leader Alexei A. Navalny for the first time, calling it an “unfortunate incident.”
Mr Putin is now set to use his new six-year term to further consolidate his control over Russian politics and continue the war in Ukraine. If he sees the term out, he will become the longest-serving Russian leader since Catherine the Great in 1700.
Western governments were quick to condemn the elections as undemocratic. Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for President Biden’s National Security Council, said “the election was clearly not free or fair.”
But as Mr Putin prepares for a fifth term as president, he appears bolder than ever, deepening his standoff with the West and showing a willingness to continue escalating tensions. Asked at the press conference whether he thought a full-scale conflict between Russia and NATO was possible, Mr Putin replied: “I think everything is possible in today’s world.”
Despite condemnation from the West, the Kremlin sees these elections as a rite of passage crucial to Mr Putin’s portrayal of himself as a genuine popular leader. Analysts now expect him to elevate hard-line supporters of the war within the Russian government, betting that Western support for Ukraine will eventually collapse and the Ukrainian government will be forced to negotiate a peace deal on Russia’s terms.
Asked about his priorities for his next term, Mr Putin began by referring to his invasion of Ukraine. “We have to perform the tasks within the special military operation,” he said. The results, he said, helped “consolidate society” around his leadership, a refrain also echoed on state television.
The extent of the Russian public’s true support for Mr. Putin in the election was difficult to gauge, given that opposition candidates were not allowed to run and that ballot stuffing and other fraud were common in previous Russian elections. It was also the least transparent election in recent Russian history, with the work of independent poll monitors reduced to levels not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
More than five million votes were reported to have come from Russian-held regions of Ukraine, where people have at times been driven to vote under the watch of armed Russian soldiers. in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk region, Mr Putin was reported to have received 95% of the vote.
In the last presidential election, in 2018, Mr. Putin’s official result was 78 percent of the vote — about 10 points lower than this weekend.
Grigorii Golosov, a political scientist in St. Petersburg, said in a telephone interview that he was surprised by the high percentage of votes claimed by the Kremlin, describing it as “characteristic of extremely closed autocracies.”
“They can declare whatever results they want since the process is not transparent,” Mr Golosov said. “All these results speak for is the degree of control of the electoral system, the electoral process, that the Russian authorities have achieved.”
For the first time in a Russian presidential election, voting spanned three days, from Friday to Sunday — an extended period that made it easier for the Kremlin to boost turnout and harder for anyone to spot fraud.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian authorities have launched a campaign of repression not seen since the Soviet era, criminalizing virtually any form of anti-war speech.
And some voters interviewed in Moscow said they were proud to vote for Mr. Putin, echoing a narrative that is a staple of Russian state television. The president, they said, had turned Russia into a prosperous, respected world power that has been forced into military conflict with a Western-armed Ukraine.
“I am proud of my country and my president,” Irina, 59, said near a polling station on central Moscow’s Kutuzovsky Avenue, declining to give her last name when speaking to a Western reporter. “He has exalted us universally to such an extent that he will not let anyone insult us.”
Ukraine has repeatedly sought to undermine Mr Putin’s image as a leader who protects Russia by launching attacks throughout the vote.
On Sunday, Russian officials said Ukraine had targeted seven areas of the country with explosive drones, and the Russian military said it shot down 35 of them. An oil refinery was set on fire in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region and air defense forces shot down two drones flying toward Moscow, Russian officials said.
But there was little evidence that the attacks – which were largely ignored by state media – had succeeded in denting Mr Putin’s aura among his supporters.
Pyotr, 41, a marketing specialist in Moscow, expressed pride that Mr Putin could outmanoeuvre and outmaneuver Western rivals. “Against the background of these vice-presidents, the Macrons and so on,” he said, referring to French President Emmanuel Macron, Mr Putin “looks like such a heavenly being”.
The other three candidates on the presidential ballot were all members of the State Duma, Russia’s parliament, and had voted in favor of the war in Ukraine, increased censorship and laws restricting gay rights.
With Mr. Putin’s best-known critics in jail or exile, a little-known opponent of the war, Boris B. Nadezhdin, managed to gather tens of thousands of signatures in a bid to get on the ballot. But the government canceled several of the signatures last month to disqualify him, citing what it called “irregularities.”
But Russia’s embattled and largely exiled opposition managed to use the election to stage an unusual protest: Putin’s opponents were encouraged to line up at their polling station at noon local time on Sunday. While it was difficult to judge how many voters chose that time to express their displeasure, a polling station near Moscow’s famed Tretyakov Gallery was relatively quiet before a long queue suddenly formed at midday.
“This is our protest — we have no other options,” said Lena, 61, who came to a polling station in central Moscow before noon with the intention, she said, of spoiling her ballot. “All us decent people are held hostage here.”
Like other voters interviewed, she declined to give her last name for fear of retaliation.
Midday queues were even longer in cities with a large Russian diaspora – such as Belgrade, Serbia and Yerevan, Armenia – where the Russian Embassy served as a polling station. Until 1 p.m. in Berlin, the line to vote stretched for about a mile through the city’s streets, ending just past where a sign marked the location of Hitler’s World War II bunker.
Yulia Navalnaya, Mr Navalny’s widow, waited in line for about six hours, making one of her first public appearances since declaring she would continue her husband’s political work after his death last month. She said after leaving the Russian embassy that she had written “Navalny” on her ballot.
Ms Navalnya hugged and posed for photos with supporters who approached her, some of them in tears.
Yulia Lozovskaya, 29, who moved to Germany from St Petersburg after Mr Putin invaded Ukraine, said she sought out Ms Navalnaya after learning on social media that she was somewhere in line.
“You feel like you’re not alone,” Ms. Lozovskaya said, referring to the size of the crowd. “And that gives tremendous power.”
The report was made by Alina Lombzina, Valerie Hopkins, Anatoly Kurmanaev and Milana Mazaeva.
