The presidential election is being held across the Russian Federation on Sunday, March 18. A Russian cosmonaut at the International Space Station also participated in the polls.
MOSCOW: Casting his ballot in Moscow, Putin seemed confident of victory, saying he would consider any percentage of votes a success. “The program that I propose for the country is the right one,” he said.
Voters were casting ballots across the world’s largest country, from the Pacific coast to Siberia and Moscow. Voting will conclude at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT; 2 p.m. EDT) in Kaliningrad, the Baltic exclave that is Russia’s westernmost region, and initial results are expected soon afterward.
Russia’s Central Election Commission says the turnout in the presidential election has exceeded 50 percent.Official results will be published by Tuesday — but no one, surely, will be waiting until then.
In Moscow, first-time voters were being given free tickets for pop concerts, and health authorities were offering free cancer screenings at selected polling stations.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny says he has boycotted the presidential election and is advising other Russians to do the same.
Navalny has been barred from the presidential campaign because of a criminal conviction widely seen as politically motivated. He has urged his supporters not to vote because of the absence of any real competition in Sunday’s election, which President Vladimir Putin is set to win easily.
Millions of ethnic Russians live in Ukraine but the number of registered Russian voters in Ukraine is unclear.
