While propagandists desperately try to hide reality and the Kremlin's repressive machine silences opposition voices and kills opponents, brave Russians are using the election as a chance to express their disagreement.
There will be no independent candidates in this presidential election - all have been rejected for spurious reasons. So what is happening is more like a play, where in the final scene Putin will simply be re-elected back to his dictatorial throne. The plot is painfully familiar, but this time, apparently, everything will not be so smooth.
The tone of the day was set by independent observers. In Chelyabinsk, at their suggestion, they removed a watch with Putin's face on it, and in Voronezh, a stand with a portrait of the incumbent president had to be covered with a sheet.
No, these are not protest actions-performances, but a legal requirement of observers not to engage in campaigning on election day.
It is curious that the local representatives of the CEC, who are notorious for falsifications and disregard for laws, suddenly went along with this. Maybe they decided not to anger the people once again.
In Saratov, apparently, they are less friendly with the laws - people were handed out newspapers with Putin's portrait on the front page without a bit of embarrassment.
In Arkhangelsk they decided to do something trickier - they brought mountains of pancakes to the polling stations.
However, for some reason, this time they didn't serve them from a shovel.
Omsk CEC attracted voters to the polling stations with music - they called the legend of Z-concerts Stas Mikhailov.
He was entertained local voters for three whole days. For this he was paid about $260 thousand from the local budget. You could buy several apartments for this money.
In the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the local authorities were generous enough to hold a lottery with an apartment as the main prize. We are not hinting at anything, but the chance for a housewarming party went to a woman in the police uniform. Coincidence?
Who and what only there was not at the Russian polling stations: and huge rosta dolls in the form of bears and horses, and strange men in the costumes of Bogatyr and Peter the Great, and folk dance ensembles, and weddings, and entire performances, and even cardboard Tucker Carlson.
The propagandists made sure that the elections looked more like a fair, a carnival or a circus - but not like an opportunity for Russians to influence the fate of the country.
In Kursk, the CEC added mystery to the voting process. There they noticed pens with disappearing ink. A check mark in the ballot paper "magically" vaporizes under the influence of fire. It is not the first time that Russians have seen such "wonders" of chemistry in elections - such pens were used in the Duma elections.
The CEC's carnival enthusiasm was undermined by brave and courageous protesters who were not afraid to fight back against Putin's repressive regime.
Today, several cases of ballots being spoiled - the ballot boxes were doused with "brilliant green".
The most desperate tried to set fire to ballot boxes, booths or even polling stations themselves - "elections with fire" were held in Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Sverdlovsk region and temporarily occupied Simferopol.
Video from the scene of the arson of a polling booth in Moscow pic.twitter.com/UDkugmlR2H
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 15, 2024
Molotov cocktails or gasoline were used.
The authorities also had trouble with electronic voting - the servers went down thanks to the friendly help of Ukrainian cyperpartisans from the neighborhood.
Today's election day in Russia was really very bright - the contrast between the pro-Putin propaganda and the real mood in society is striking even to those who still "understand nothing about politics".
This is just the beginning - there are two more election days ahead and the opposition's announced "noon against Putin" protest action on March 17. We are following the development of events - we have a feeling that it will be very interesting.
