Russia's Presidential Election Results: Putin Set to Secure Victory Amid International Controversy

Putin’s repression of domestic dissent since the invasion has left him with no challengers after Alexei Navalny, his most prominent opponent, died in a remote Arctic prison colony last month.

Navalny’s family and supporters have been forced into exile and have blamed Putin for his death, an allegation the Kremlin denies. Asked about Navalny on Sunday night, Putin dismissed claims that Russia had murdered him.

“As concerns Mr Navalny, yes, he left this life, it is a tragic event. But there have been other instances where incarcerated people left this earth. Hasn’t that happened in the US? It has, and more than once,” Putin said.

Putin added that he had agreed to an informal proposal to release Navalny in a prisoner exchange not long before he died. “But unfortunately, what happened happened. I agreed under one condition: we swap him, and he doesn’t come back. But such is life.”

From exile or prison, opposition leaders had urged supporters to go to the polls en masse at noon on Sunday in Navalny’s memory and vote against Putin. Hundreds of people followed the call, according to footage posted on social media.

“My wife, my friend and I came to the polling station around 12,” said Danil, a corporate lawyer who lives in a northern Moscow neighbourhood. He said a “visible line” of people of all ages started forming at noon. “I expected problems, that the authorities would close the station at noon. But except for the line, there was nothing extraordinary,” Danil said.

Vera, a young woman in Moscow, said she came to vote at midday to show her opposition to Putin and “that I do not support everything that is happening in the country.”

Abroad, even longer lines formed in cities with large Russian émigré populations, including Dubai, Almaty, and Berlin, where Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, queued to vote.

Russian police detained more than 65 people on Sunday for acts including writing “No to war!” on a ballot, wearing a T-shirt with Navalny’s name on it, and trying to slip a photo of him into the ballot box, according to independent rights monitor OVD-Info.

Some officials tried to explain away the protests. Authorities in Novosibirsk, Siberia’s largest city, claimed the noon queues had been caused by repair works.

Independent election monitor Golos, whose co-chair Grigory Melkonyants was jailed last year, said authorities had also coerced public sector employees into voting early or pushed them to vote online.

The three lawmakers who were allowed on the ballot alongside Putin support the war and have avoided criticising the president.

(CNN)