Putin lost badly in the elections in Switzerland. Russians voted and protested against Putin in 9 countries

Vladimir Putin lost the Russian presidential election by a landslide, at least in Switzerland. This is evident from exit polls in Bern and Geneva. The result was the opposite of the 87 percent approval demanded by officials in Russia.

Putin received 16 percent of the vote in Bern and 20 percent in Geneva. In both cities, hundreds of Russians were interviewed by members of the Russia of the Future/Switzerland association and volunteers in the presence of the embassy and the consulate general. This was coordinated by the organization Vote Abroad, as Polina Petuschkova of Russia of the Future/Switzerland explained to the Keystone-SDA news agency.

The most votes were won by 40-year-old Vladislav Davankov of the New People’s Party, deputy head of the Duma’s parliamentary chamber. Together with Leonid Slutsky and Nikolai Kharitonov, he was one of three candidates admitted to the elections, alongside Putin.

Dawankov won 45 percent of the vote in Bern and 29 percent in Geneva – meaning he has clearly overtaken Putin nationally, according to post-election surveys. About a fifth of voters disabled their ballot paper.

Although the Central Electoral Commission of the Russian Federation in Moscow had the exact results on Monday afternoon, the Russian embassy in Bern could only announce them for Switzerland in the evening.

Sham elections without competition

On Sunday, thousands of Russians around the world went to their embassies at lunchtime to protest against Putin. Even in Russia, hundreds in several cities expressed their displeasure at the electoral farce with disruptive actions. They followed a call from Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of opposition activist Alexei Navalny, who recently died in the Russian gulag.

Russia’s presidential elections were considered neither free nor fair. Several representatives of Western countries called it a sham election because no candidates were admitted who were critical of the Kremlin or against Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Election observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were also not allowed to participate. (sda)