Putin says those who sabotage votes ‘will have to be dealt with’ (Document)
Moscow, Russia:
Vladimir Putin said Russia would not be “deterred” as he welcomed an election victory that paved the way for the former spy to become Russia’s longest-serving leader in more than 200 years.
All of the 71-year-old’s major opponents are dead, in jail or in exile, and he has overseen a ruthless crackdown on anyone who speaks out against his rule or the military offensive in Ukraine.
“I want to thank you all and citizens across the country for your support and trust,” Putin told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Moscow early Monday morning, hours after the vote closed.
“No matter who they want to intimidate, no matter how much they want to intimidate us, no matter how much they want to suppress us, our will, our consciousness, no matter how much they want to suppress us, our will, our consciousness— No one in history has ever succeeded at something like this. It doesn’t work now and it won’t work in the future. Never,” he added.
Official election data showed that more than 80% of polling stations had submitted results, with Putin receiving 87.2% of the vote, a record victory in a presidential election in which he faced no real competition.
The three-day election was marked by a surge in deadly bombings in Ukraine, incursions into Russian territory by pro-Kiev sabotage groups and vandalism of polling stations.
The Kremlin sees the election as a moment for Russians to back an all-out military campaign in Ukraine, where the vote is taking place on Russian-controlled territory.
“Drunken with power”
In his post-election speech in Moscow, Putin specifically thanked Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
He was relentless in asserting that his forces had a significant advantage on the battlefield, even as Ukraine launched some of its largest airstrikes against Russia a week later, with pro-Ukrainian militias attacking Russian border villages.
“The initiative belongs entirely to the Russian armed forces. In some areas, our people just cut them – the enemy – down,” he said.
Kyiv and its allies blasted the vote, which also took place in parts of Ukraine controlled by Russian forces, as a sham. President Volodymyr Zelensky has slammed Putin as a “dictator” who is “drunk on power”.
“He will not do anything evil in order to prolong his personal power,” Zelensky said.
As early as the first day of voting in the election on Friday, EU President Charles Michel sarcastically congratulated Putin on his “landslide victory.”
If Putin completes another Kremlin term, he will be in power longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century.
Allies of Alexei Navalny, the late Putin’s most prominent rival, had tried to undermine his inevitable victory, urging voters to flock to polling stations at midday to spoil their votes.
His wife, Yulia Navalnaya, was greeted in Berlin with flowers and applause from supporters. After voting at the Russian embassy, she said she had put her late husband’s name on the ballot.
‘gentlemen.Navalny
Some voters in Moscow responded to the opposition’s call, telling AFP they came to honor Navalny and express their opposition in the only legal way.
“I came to show that there are many of us, that we exist and that we are not an insignificant minority,” said 19-year-old student Artem Minasyan at a polling station in central Moscow.
Putin said the protests had had no impact and that those who spoiled the votes “will have to be dealt with.”
Putin commented publicly on Navalny’s death for the first time last month, calling his death a “sad event.”
Putin, who publicly used his first name for the first time in years during a televised news conference, said: “As for Mr. Navalny. Yes, he died. This is always a sad event.”
Putin said a colleague offered Navalny days before his death an exchange for “some people” currently being held in prisons in Western countries.
“I said ‘I agree’ before the person I was speaking to had finished speaking.”
Meanwhile, former Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev congratulated Putin on a “brilliant victory” long before the final results were announced.
State television praised the Russian people’s “tremendous support for the president” and the country’s “incredible unity” behind its leader.
‘not alone’
At Navalny’s grave in a Moscow cemetery, AFP reporters saw damaged ballot papers with the opposition leader’s name scrawled on a pile of flowers.
“We live in a country where we go to jail if we speak our mind. So when I have moments like this and see a lot of people, I realize we’re not alone,” said Regina, 33 .
Protests broke out in the first days of the vote and scores of Russians were arrested on accusations of pouring dye into ballot boxes or arson attacks.
Since Moscow launched its offensive against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, any public dissent in Russia has been severely punished, and authorities have repeatedly warned against election protests.
The OVD-Info police monitoring group announced that at least 80 people have been detained in nearly 20 Russian cities in connection with election-related protests.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
