Controversial Russian Elections Marred by Protests and Incidents

Starting on Friday, March 15, the three-day presidential election kicked off in Russia. The ballot featured the names of Vladimir Putin along with his nominal opponents: Nikolai Charitonov, Vladislav Davankov, and Leonid Slutsky.

It's widely acknowledged that these elections were essentially a formality designed to maintain the illusion of democracy and secure another six years in power for the sitting President of Russia.

According to reports from Russian independent media, several incidents have occurred during the voting process. For instance, Dozhd TV reported that in St. Petersburg, a woman hurled a Molotov cocktail at the entrance of a school that was hosting the voting process. She has been apprehended.

A significant event also unfolded in Moscow, where a voting booth was deliberately set ablaze. The woman implicated in the incident is facing up to five years in jail. Furthermore, in the city of Kogalym in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, an attempt to ignite the electoral commission's premises was made.

In Moscow and various other cities, ballots within the boxes were drenched with differing substances. A woman was charged after she was found pouring a disinfectant called brilliant green into a ballot box in Moscow.

Videos circling online vividly capture these moments. One such video displays a Moscow resident burning her ballot paper.

In an expressive act of defiance, a Moscow woman set her ballot on fire, on which she wrote "Give back my husband!!!". This footage quickly circulated through Russian social media channels, following another video of a ballot box being ignited at a different polling station - as reported by Belsat on the platform X (formerly known as Twitter)