Press
Russia will vote in the next three days. Protests took place on the first day of the election. Numerous arson and paint attacks are carried out.
Moscow – On the first election day Russian Presidential elections, which will take place from March 15th to 17th, have already seen several disruptions to the voting process by protesters. Apparently arson attacks were carried out on polling stations in various regions of the country; There was also an increase in paint attacks.
Like the independent Russian news agency Sota According to reports, an elderly woman was arrested in Moscow for setting fire to a voting booth. A video posted by the agency on the short messaging service X (formerly Twitter) shows police officers holding the woman while she appears to be filming the fire with her cell phone. Moscow's Central Investigative Committee later said it had opened a criminal investigation into the arson. Speaking to Russia's state news agency, RIA Novosti, election officials said no ballots were damaged. The election workers could have continued their work immediately.
At least three arson attacks on Putin's ballot boxes – received a sabotage order from Telegram?
There was also an incident in St. Petersburg in which a young woman tried to throw a Molotov cocktail into a polling station and was immediately arrested. This is reported by the local news agency Fontanka; A video recorded by a surveillance camera can be seen on the agency's website.
However, the attempted attack was not very successful – the projectile ricocheted twice and was picked up again by the young woman, and finally it shattered on the ground in front of the building. She was arrested anyway. The news agency claims that she is a student at the pedagogical university, comes from the “Far East” and has a “sabotage order from a certain Ukrainian “Telegram channel” received.
In the northern Russian autonomous region of Khanty-Mansi, another woman is said to have tried to set fire to a ballot box with a Molotov cocktail. This is reported by the independent Russian newspaper The Moscow Times citing a local news outlet.
Seven people have been arrested so far and are facing penalties for “obstructing the right to vote”.
Green paint is said to have been poured into ballot boxes on several occasions. The Central Election Commission of Russia (CEC) has called for security measures to be improved after incidents occurred in the southern Russian region of Rostov and the Republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Russian media reported.
Two ballot boxes were also damaged in the city of Borisoglebsk in the southern Russian region of Voronezh, as well as another in Moscow and in the annexed Crimea. The brilliant green dye, called “zelyonka” (literally: green stuff) in Russian, was widely used in attacks on opposition activists in the 2010s. Later it became a symbol of resistance and green the color of hope.
Even if the re-election of Wladimir Putin will hardly be prevented, so there will be protests. In total, according to official information, at least seven people were arrested for vandalism at polling stations Moscow Times. The head of the electoral authority, Ella Pamfilova, said that those arrested had been promised money and that they did not know that their actions would be prosecuted. They are now accused of “obstructing the right to vote,” which in Russia carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. (tpn)
#Protests #Putin #Russian #election #arson #paint #attacks