Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine is not going to stop now, this time with three days of presidential elections in Russia that have, unsurprisingly, given victory to Vladimir Putin. This time, for the first time, a Russian president won by the votes of Ukrainians who have lived for more than two years under Russian occupation in the east of the country, where many were forced to vote at gunpoint, according to multiple reports from residents. “.
oh Video 14 seconds long and shared on Telegram on Saturday, the second of three days of presidential elections in Russia, which unsurprisingly gave victory to Vladimir Putin. In it, a uniformed man, with his face covered, enters the polling booth and looks over the voter's shoulder mid-vote in what appears to be an attempt to make sure the “correct candidate” is crossed. Four of the candidates.
The video was shared on several channels on Russia's most popular social network, including “Time to vote, now SHHH” (free translation, where SHHH serves as an acronym for the Russian Central Election Commission). In this group, a clip appeared with a description of the images, to which the note was later added: “Earlier we posted a video of security forces agents controlling a polling booth with a voter inside. We cannot confirm [a sua veracidade], but we cannot deny it. Maybe it's a staged video, maybe not. However, we apologize for publishing information that we could not 100% verify.
A Russian investigative journalist who has been in exile since the start of the war in Ukraine told CNN that the video may be part of false propaganda targeting the country's most recent elections. “This is important in the context of a clearly concerted effort to plant ridiculous amounts of 'fakes' in the Russian media,” he said, speaking anonymously for security reasons. “Some independent media have used this video, so it appears to be a campaign to discredit them – this video is bait to 'expose' the lie and say 'look, these guys will believe anything'.”
Fictional or not, the video is representative of what human rights groups condemned as a campaign of “repression and intimidation” during the election. – in the Russian Federation or in the occupied territories of Ukraine. (“The actual pictures you see on the networks of players with ballot boxes are probably from occupied Ukraine,” says the same source.)
According to the OVD, at least 74 people were detained in various parts of Russia on Sunday, the last day of voting, in addition to an undetermined number throughout Friday and Saturday. (CNN reached out to the agency to find out what kind of complaints and data it has compiled about possible election violations, but did not receive a response at the time of publishing this article.)
As quoted by ReutersThe organization KOLOS (“Voice”) — described by the news agency as “the only election monitoring organization independent of Russian authorities” — reported a series of other violations, starting precisely with reports of officials' agents looking over their shoulders. Electors as voted.
In a statement, the organization, which was founded in 2000 (the same year Putin first became Russian president), listed some concrete allegations, citing the presence of police officers at many polling stations — one such case. In the Moscow region, agents demanded that an election official open a sealed ballot box and hand over the ballots to them, and another in the capital, where an agent “took the completed ballot from the hand of the voter who voted.”
Reuters could not independently verify any of the incidents described. On Social Network X, an independent news site He shared the video Polling Station No. in Krasnochelsky District of St. Petersburg. It shows an incident recorded by an election observer in 1136 in which a voter was led away in handcuffs by law enforcement officers after a heated exchange about the secrecy of his vote. OVD shared the same video on social media. (“It's real, unlike any other,” assured CNN the Russian journalist quoted at the beginning of this article.)
В Петербурге 17 MARCH 2018 Sotrudnik Nachal Obiviniat Musinu Dom
Video: Telegram-channel «Napleyutadeli Petersburg» pic.twitter.com/xCyWw9O61f
— ОВД-Инфо (@OvdInfo) March 18, 2024
The protests filled headlines around the world throughout the three days of voting, with attacks on polling stations becoming more visible and verifiable. Molotov cocktails and green paint were thrown into ballot boxes. In total, the head of the election commission announced, 29 polling stations in 20 Russian regions were attacked by “scoundrels” who warned Ella Pamfilova that she could face up to five years in prison. Former President Dmitry Medvedev – who held the post – a position that Putin was unable to fulfill continuously (Putin's prime minister) – said those detained could be charged with treason against the country.
From occupied Ukraine, armed guards have been going door-to-door in the regions of Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya, occupied since a large-scale invasion in 2022, and even worse reports have come from the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. It's been a decade. Quoted The Washington PostYevheniya Hliebova denounced “the brigade of election officials [russos] with an armed soldier” walks from house to house in the village of Novomikolivka in Zaporizhzhya.
“He was carrying a gun, so it was a threat, not a verbal one, but actually a violent threat,” Yevhenia described during the “gunpoint election” — echoing an expression used by Ukraine's Center for National Resistance. Latest ReportIn it he highlighted that “voting at gunpoint is another Russian crime against civilians.”
According to the group, citing anonymous sources, thousands of Russian National Guardsmen, police and private security guards were sent to protect polling stations in occupied Ukrainian regions and “mobile election commissions” were created in the most heavily bombed areas. to The Washington PostA former Kherson resident, whose daughter-in-law still lives in the region, said two Russian soldiers approached a woman's house in a house-to-house operation.
Other sources in the occupied territories are quoted in the newspaper Independence of Kiev, anonymously reported similar footage of soldiers from occupation forces rounding up groups of Ukrainians and forcing them to vote. Quoted Al-JazeeraA former resident of Mariupol in Donetsk said those who continue to live there are “forced to submit to the regime”. [de Putin] Pretend to support everything that happens out of fear for your own life. The same source said the vote was not secret – Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhia regional military administration, equated the mobilization efforts for these Russian elections to a fictional TV series. Writing in Telegram Russian forces continue to “terrorize” eastern Ukrainians, convincing them that they will remain forever in the territories they have occupied for more than two years.
Cited by the New York Times, political analysts and Ukrainian officials say Russian presidential elections in the occupied territories are a way for Moscow to advance the war on two disarmed fronts, rather than another vote decided in Putin's favor: sustaining the occupation and identifying dissidents. In official statements, Russian officials made no mention of dozens of reports from local residents and social media posts about military intervention in the referendum, but, according to the newspaper, they confirmed and justified the presence of troops in eastern Ukraine. Protect the votes, collection of ballot boxes.
This Monday, Amnesty International (AI) released its 10-year assessment The occupation and “repression” of Crimea and reporting of harassment and “Suppression” of the identities of Tatar minorities and Ukrainians In the peninsula since 2014. Contacted by CNN, AI said it had no plans to release any reports of violations during the presidential elections, and that it would be possible if an investigation was conducted into the election and post-election period. Results will take some time to publish.
In the next few days, the organization plans to release information on the networks about the last 24 years of Putin's rule. All votes have been counted, and under the West's concerted protests about the lack of transparency, justice and freedom – before, during and after the election – Russia's election commission reported 77.5% of the vote today, Putin's re-election with 87.3%. At 71, he will remain president of Russia until at least 2030, putting him close to breaking another of Stalin's records – the longest-reigning leader in Russia in the past 200 years.