Few hours before the polling stations close at 18.00 GMT according to each time zone of the extensive Russian territory, had reported a high citizen participation of more than 73.25%, figure that already exceeds 67.5% of the last elections.
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Ella Pamfilova, chair of the Central Election Commission (CEC) says that the high tunout due to pressure from the West and the introduction of new forms of voting: "First, I want to thank the West for uniting us. We understood to a greater extent how important it is for us to be together now."
The head of the Russian Central Election Commission highlighted that 1115 international observers from 129 countries are working on the presidential election in the Russian Federation, and pointed out that "We will win this information war too" Pamfilova said on attacks on CEC resources.
In some territories recently rejoined the Russian federation, voters voted for the first time.For example, in the Lugansk People’s Republic turnout was 87.12% and in the Kherson region 83.87%. In Mariupol ''Russia! Only for Russia, guys, honestly. We love Russia very much!'' said an unidentified lady in a report for Sputnik
Also thousands of Russian citizens abroad have gone out en masse to exercise their right to vote in the various Russian consulates around the world. Large queues have been reported by the press agencies in cities like Sydney, Lisboa, New York, or Beirut.
The candidates for the post of President of the Russian Federation are Leonid Slutsky (of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party), Nikolai Kharitonov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), Vladislav Davankov (New People) and the current head of state Vladimir Putin (self-proclaimed).
The three-day election day has been calm despite destabilizing attempts by the West, cyber attacks, Ukrainian terrorist incursions into Russian territory, or attempts at sabotage by anti-Russian opponents.