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VLADIMIR Putin’s officials have “burned off ink from ballots” after the first votes were cast in Russia’s sham election, it was claimed.
Voters have also reportedly been seen setting fire to ballot boxes, spoiling ballots with green liquid, and scrawling “Navalny” in support of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
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East2WestVotes had been seen in ballot boxes even before polls had opened, in a defiant protest that was Navalny’s last wish.
It has also been alleged that a commander removed the “Navalny” votes before submitting the ballot papers for later counting.
An insider said: “Our military unit has already voted, like everyone else in the army.
“I personally know men who spoiled their ballots [by writing Navalny across them].
“Today I found these ballots in our company commander’s bedside table.
“There are quite a few of us who would like to finally get things back to normal in the country.
“The ******* problem is that the snivelling bosses won’t let us be heard.”
Some soldiers voted early especially in the war zone, an arrangement open to abuse.
One video from Moscow today showed soldiers being frogmarched to the polling station.
In a separate incident, a 20-year-old woman from Moscow staged a protest against Putin by pouring green liquid into a ballot box.
The woman was caught on camera placing her voting paper in the box, before emptying a bottle of zelenka – a dye widely used as a disinfectant for wounds by hospitals in Russia.
The woman, who has now been named as artist named Alina N, then shouted pro-Ukrainian slogans, reported BAZA.
“She faces a sentence of three to five years,” said the outlet.
But Mash news outlet said that if it was confirmed she had carried out the attack on Ukrainian orders, she could face prosecution under Russia’s treason laws with a jail term of 12 years or more.
A similar case happened today in Borisoglebsk, a town in Voronezh region, where a middle-aged woman is reported to have emptied a smaller quantity of the liquid into a ballot box.
Three more cases were opened due to the damage to ballots with brilliant green liquid.
One woman poured the green disinfectant into a ballot box in Karachay-Cherkessia, a 62-year-old man did the same in Samarskoye village, while one woman poured it into a ballot box in occupied Crimea.
All of them were detained.
“All those detained for damaging ballots are now being checked for cooperation with the Ukrainian special services,” reported Mash.
One theory is that they were persuaded to carry out the attacks by phone scammers working for Ukrainian intelligence.
Later, footage caught the moment a woman set fire to a voting booth in Moscow.
“Judging by the video, she doused the voting booth with a flammable liquid, set it on fire and immediately began filming everything on her phone,” reported BAZA news outlet.
Separately, a voter sought to set alight a ballot box in Khanty Mansi region in Siberia, according to reports.
A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a St Petersburg polling station by a young woman, it was reported.
It has also been alleged that fraud has taken place in the sham election.
Reports said bosses demanded their staff picture their marked ballot papers from the polling booth and send them the image – to show they have voted for Putin.
One woman said she obeyed but afterwards ticked another box, so spoiling her ballot.
Problems were also reported in electronic remote voting systems, a new arrangement seen as potentially open to abuse.
The system became overloaded, it was reported.
In Kursk and Rostov regions – bordering Ukraine – there were unconfirmed reports that pens with disappearing ink were provided for voters, enabling later ballot tampering.
“The inscription disappears when heated, although the pen looks ordinary,” said a source cited by the anti-war Telegram channel Sirena.
“They told everyone to be silent and only supply these pens from the boxes they brought.”
The boxes carried the logo of the Central Election Commission, which is seen as biased in favour of Putin, it was claimed.
Yet a video supposedly demonstrating the alleged abuse did not show a real ballot paper.
The three-day election – seen by the world as rigged to produce a landslide for Vladimir Putin – got underway across Russia’s 11 time zones today.
There were multiple reports of state employees being “forced” to vote, and put under pressure to support Putin.
In the Urals, some were locked out of their offices in the cold, and ordered to vote first being allowed to go to work.
In Barnaul and elsewhere in the Altai region, surveillance cameras in polling stations – supposedly a guard against fraud – were not working.
In the Khorsky settlement of the Khabarovsk region a suspicious stack of ballots was noticed in a box, as if thrown in together.
And in Chukotka, Russia’s most easterly region voters were provided with pancakes, which may be seen as an inducement to vote.
There were also claims of abuses involving the issuing of ballots enabling poll workers to visit residents at home to obtain their votes.
Exiled journalist Dmitry Kolezev, editor of Republic, said of the conduct of the Russian election: “At 8am the polling stations are already packed.
“Employees of the school, administration, local district gas and energy sales were required to vote before starting work, and they keep a record of the lists of those who voted.
“Such control has never existed in previous years.
“There is a very clear command to the heads of organizations – so that all employees vote on Friday – a working day.
“So, alas, the picture with both turnout and support will be what they need.”
Stanislav Andreichyuk, of Golos election monitoring organisation, said: “The first day of voting has started and everything is going exactly as we warned.
“A huge number of voters were under duress.”
There was reportedly a lack of independent observers and pressure not to conduct exit polls, which might gauge how people had voted.
In Buryatia, workers from the Timlyui cement plant, dressed in overalls and helmets, came together to vote at polling station No. 321 in the village of Kamensk.
After voting, the workers lined up with signs that read: “Cement workers are strong! Let’s vote for Russia!”
The stunt appeared to be a show of orchestrated support for Putin.
Meanwhile, two anti-war candidates were blocked from standing in the poll.
The three other candidates all support the war, although one, Vladislav Davankov, 40, of the New People party, a Kremlin-choreographed grouping, backs negotiations to halt the conflict.
Reports suggest that Kremlin officials have decreed that Putin should win with around 80 per cent of the vote.
It comes after voting was disrupted today in the Russian presidential election in border region Belgorod amid new shelling and “thousands” evacuating to safer territory.
The attack, which saw a truck explode into flames in the middle of a residential street, led to the suspension of polling on day one of Russia’s presidential election.
New footage appeared to show pro-Ukrainian partisan paramilitary forces are now active in the border village of Kozinka.
Two blindfolded people, reportedly Russian prisoners, were seen in the video being marched away by the freedom fighters.
Partisan forces claimed “more than 7,000 civilian vehicles of residents of Belgorod and the Belgorod region” heeded their call to evacuate.
Seven multiple launch rocket system shells were shot down on approach to Belgorod, but there were also hits.
Two people were inured – one man suffering broken ribs and another facial wounds from glass shards.
Election officials were seen wearing bullet proof gear.
Reuters
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