Vladimir Putin has won the Russian election with 87.8 percent of the vote, exit polls show.
The despot is heading for a landslide victory in the presidential election to secure another six-year term, a Russian Public Opinion Research Center poll showed tonight.
The vote, which contains no small amount of tension, takes place against the backdrop of the harshest crackdown on political opposition and freedom of expression in Russia since Soviet times.
Only three token candidates – and none opposed to his war in Ukraine – were allowed to run against him as he sought a fifth term.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said tonight that Putin wanted to rule forever and that Russia’s presidential election was an illegitimate sham.
Zelensky said in his nightly video speech that ‘the Russian dictator is simulating another election’ and that Putin was ‘power sick and doing everything to rule forever’.
“There is no legitimacy in this imitation of elections, and there cannot be. This person should be prosecuted in The Hague. That is what we have to ensure,” he added
Vladimir Putin has won the Russian election with 87.8 percent of the vote, exit polls show
People attend a rally in Berlin, near the Russian embassy, where voters lined up to cast their ballots in the Russian presidential election
Poland is another that does not recognize the legitimacy of the election, declaring it “not legal”.
“Russia’s presidential election is not legal, free and fair,” a foreign ministry statement said, adding that the vote had taken place “amid heavy repression”
Previously, votes of Russian citizens living in other countries were cast all over the world.
In Britain, dozens of people queued outside the Russian embassy in London to vote in the election. The queue was at least half a kilometer long when MailOnline visited.
Thousands across the nation opposed to the veteran Kremlin leader had gone to their local polling station by midday to either destroy their ballots in protest or to vote for one of the three candidates standing against Putin.
Others had pledged to put the name of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died last month in an Arctic prison, on their ballot.
Navalny’s allies posted videos on YouTube of queues of people queuing at various polling stations across Russia at midday, who they said were there to protest peacefully.
Navalny had endorsed the ‘Dinner Against Putin’ plan in a social media announcement facilitated by his lawyers before he died. The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta called the planned action ‘Navalny’s political testament’.
His widow Yulia Navalnaya attended a dinner protest against Putin on Sunday in Berlin.
Navalnaya spokesman Kira Yarmysh posted photos on X of the dissident queuing in the German capital, where Russians lined up to vote. Activists said some people shouted ‘Yulia, Yulia’ and clapped.
Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the late Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny, speaks with a woman during a demonstration near the Russian embassy in Berlin
The Kremlin casts Navalny’s political allies – most of whom are based outside Russia – as dangerous extremists out to destabilize the country on behalf of the West
Navalny’s allies post videos on YouTube of lines of people queuing at various polling stations across Russia at noon
Protests grew earlier today outside the Russian embassy in London
The queue went long down Bayswater Road, just north of Hyde Park
Over in Paris, a large line of people was seen outside the Russian embassy, while protesters were seen in nearby green spaces holding up signs with messages critical of Putin written on them.
One protester held a sign accusing the despot of being an assassin, while another compared Putin to Stalin and called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ‘genocide’ and ‘terrorism’.
In Russia itself, the main means of protest across the nation has been the ‘Dinner Against Putin’ movement.
Navalny’s allies posted videos on YouTube of queues of people queuing at various polling stations across Russia at midday, who they said were there to protest peacefully.
Navalny had endorsed the ‘Dinner Against Putin’ plan in a social media announcement facilitated by his lawyers before he died. The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta called the planned action ‘Navalny’s political testament’.
The Kremlin casts Navalny’s political allies – most of whom are based outside Russia – as dangerous extremists out to destabilize the country on behalf of the West.
It says Putin enjoys overwhelming support among ordinary Russians, pointing to opinion polls that put his approval rating above 80%.
With Russia’s vast land mass spanning 11 time zones, protest voters were spread out rather than concentrated into a single mass, making it difficult to estimate how many people turned out for the protest event.