At least 74 people were detained yesterday in 17 cities in Russia, on the third and final day of voting in the presidential elections, according to several non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
The arrests were carried out in 17 cities across the country, including Moscow, according to data cited by the Spanish news agency EFE, which points to 19 arrests in the capital, Moscow, in addition to 29 people in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, among others.
The number should grow throughout the day. In the capital, a couple was arrested for wearing a stripe with quotes from George Orwell, author of the book ‘1984’, and in other places several arrests were also made as part of the ‘Noon against Putin’ protest, which led opponents to wait at 12:00 local time to go to the polling stations, in a protest that also took place in other foreign cities, including Lisbon.
The organizers of the campaign – supported by the widow of Russian opponent Alexei Navalny (who died in prison in February), Yulia Navalny, and billionaire Mikail Kodorkovski – also presented other protest options, such as making the ballot paper useless or writing several names, including that of Navalny.
The international protest ‘Noon against Putin’ invites Russian citizens, in Russia and the rest of the world, to go to their respective polling stations at 12 pm “to express a collective position against the current political situation”.
Vladimir Putin has been in power since 2000 and intends to secure a fifth presidential term, after also serving as prime minister between 2008 and 2012.
Participation in Russia’s presidential elections exceeded 74%, around six hours before the last voting centers closed, according to the country’s Central Election Commission (CEC).
At 2:15 pm (local time), participation was at 74.09% of the estimated 112 million voters, the CEC revealed in the most recent data presented so far.
In the 2018 elections, participation was 67.5%. The data released yesterday includes remote electronic voting and in-person voting. According to official polls, voting intentions for Vladimir Putin were around 80%.