Volodymyr Zelensky has tonight led the world condemnation of Vladimir Putin’s crushing victory in Russia’s sham Presidential election.
The Ukrainian president lashed out at the 71-year-old tyrant saying he is ‘sick for power and is doing everything to rule forever’.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron joined a chorus of politicians across the globe declaring the bogus vote as not what a ‘free and fair’ election ‘looks like’.
A White House national security spokesman echoed Lord Cameron’s sentiments ‘given how Mr Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him’.
With all his serious opponents either murdered, exiled or in jail, the despot is heading for a landslide victory in the presidential election to secure another six year term, the poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre showed this evening.
Only three token candidates – and no one who opposes his war in Ukraine – were allowed to run against him as he sought a fifth term.
Earlier demonstrations against Putin in Russia led to more than 60 people being arrested.
By the end of his next term, Putin would have ruled for a total of 30 years – overtaking Josef Stalin’s 29 year brutal rule.
Vladimir Putin has won the Russian election with 87.8 per cent of the vote, exit polls show
The Russian tyrant, 71, has cemented his position at the top of the Kremlin until at least 2030
People attend a rally in Berlin, near the Russian embassy where voters lined up to cast their ballots in the Russia’s presidential election
The vote, which holds little suspense, took place against the backdrop of the harshest crackdown on political opposition and freedom of speech in Russia since Soviet times.
Zelensky said tonight that Putin wanted to rule forever and that Russia’s presidential election was an illegitimate imitation.
He said in his nightly video address that ‘the Russian dictator is simulating another election’, and that Putin was ‘sick for power and is doing everything to rule forever’.
‘There is no legitimacy in this imitation of elections and there cannot be. This person should be on trial in The Hague. That’s what we have to ensure,’ he added
A White House national security spokesperson said ‘the elections are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him’.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry said the result will surprise nobody and ‘Putin’s rule is authoritarian’.
‘He relies on censorship, repression & violence,’ they wrote on X.
‘The “election” in the occupied territories of Ukraine are null and void & another breach of international law.’
Poland is another not to acknowledge the legitimacy of the election declaring it as ‘not legal’.
‘Russia’s presidential election is not legal, free and fair,’ said a foreign ministry statement, adding that voting had taken place ‘amid harsh repressions’.
The British Foreign Office wrote on X before the exit polls result was announced: ‘By illegally holding elections on Ukrainian territory, Russia demonstrates that it is not interested in finding a path to peace.
‘The UK will continue to provide humanitarian, economic and military aid to Ukrainians defending their democracy.’
The Russian president’s Kremlin approved election rival Vladislav Davankov had attracted some liberal and anti-war support but was never seen as a real challenger.
He said: ‘Putin’s victory in the presidential elections of the Russian Federation is undoubted.’
A general view of the Russia’s Central Electoral Commission Headquarters in Moscow showing Putin’s projected landslide win
Members of a local electoral commission count ballots at a polling station after the last day of the three-day Russia’s presidential election in Moscow
Members of an electoral commission empty a ballot box, after polling stations closed on the final day of the presidential election in Saint Petersburg
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky led the world condemnation of Putin’s crushing victory saying the Russian despot is ‘sick for power’
Foreign Secretary David Cameron joined Zelensky in dismissing the vote saying it was not what free and fair elections look like
Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the late Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny, talks to a woman during a rally near the Russian embassy in Berlin
The Kremlin casts Navalny’s political allies – most of whom are based outside Russia – as dangerous extremists out to destabilise the country on behalf of the West
Navalny’s allies broadcast videos on YouTube of lines of people queuing up at different polling stations across Russia at midday
Protests grew outside the Russian embassy in London earlier today
The queue went far down Bayswater Road, just north of Hyde Park
Belarus – run by fellow-dictator Alexander Lukashenko – was the first foreign country to congratulate Putin on his victory.
‘International observers have not recorded any facts calling into question the legitimacy of the presidential elections in the Russian Federation,’ said the foreign ministry in Minsk.
Speaking this evening after his win was announced, Putin said ‘we are all comrades in arms’ and thanked ‘the citizens of Russia’.
He said: ‘This is an extremely important thing… the source of power in the country is the Russian people. And the vote of every citizen of Russia, the votes of all citizens of Russia express the united will of the Russian Federation. This is one of the bases for the country’s development in the field of development, science and education.
‘Today in the current conditions I would like to express my gratitude to the military, to the people on the frontline who are ensuring the conditions for our country to exist in the future, who are risking their lives and health by fulfilling this mission of defending our country and defending historical territories of Russia and our country in general.
‘Of course we have a lot of things to resolve in the future but when we are united I think it’s become clear for everyone, whoever wants to threaten us or bully us, whoever wants to suppress us, our will, they were not successful in the past and they will not be successful in the future.
‘Before us there are a lot of very specific task the results of the election n is an expression of trust of people and their hope that we will do everything according to our plans. I would like to thank all of you and all citizens of Russia for this trust and this support.’
In a press conference after his speech, Putin said he dreamed ‘about a strong, independent, sovereign Russia and I hope that the results of the vote will allow us to achieve these goals’.
He added he would always ‘act in the basis of the interests of the Russian Federation and this would reflect the situation on the frontline’.
‘I would like to reiterate that we are for peaceful negotiations but not because our enemy is running out of bullets. We are only for peaceful negotiations if they are to create long term benefits for our nations. It’s not about taking a pause for the enemy to rearm.’
When asked by a US reporter about the lack of opposition to him including the death of Alexei Navalny and the barring of anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin, who was banned from running due to ‘irregularities’, Putin said: ‘This is life’.
‘If Mr Nadezhdin took part in these elections, that means it was the result of his unsatisfactory preparation,’ he said.
‘Maybe he should have avoided any mistakes of providing the applications, as far as I understand this was the problem, he did not get sufficient votes to take part in the campaign.
‘As for Navalny, yes he passed and this is always a sad event, but unfortunately we had some other cases where people died in prison.
‘Unfortunately what happened happened. But this happens, so you can’t do anything about this. So this is life.
‘If you want my opinion about whether our elections are democratic, yes I do believe they are democratic.’
He then went on to rant about the United States, accusing it of ‘using the justice machine in order to attack one of the candidates’.
He said: ‘We do not have a preference for any candidates in the US, we will work with anyone who is elected, but using the justice system this has become a joke, an international shame for the US for your so-called democratic system and I believe that there’s no democracy in the election process in the western countries and especially in the US.’
Earlier, votes from Russian citizens living in other countries were being cast across the world.
In the UK, scores of people queued up outside the Russian Embassy in London to vote in the election. The line was at least half a mile long when MailOnline visited.
Thousands across the nation who oppose the veteran Kremlin leader had gone to their local polling station at midday to either spoil their ballot paper in protest or to vote for one of the three candidates standing against Putin.
Others had vowed to scrawl the name of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died last month in an Arctic prison, on their ballot paper.
Navalny’s allies broadcast videos on YouTube of lines of people queuing up at different polling stations across Russia at midday who they said were there to peacefully protest.
Navalny had endorsed the ‘Noon against Putin’ plan in a message on social media facilitated by his lawyers before he died. The independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper called the planned action ‘Navalny’s political testament’.
His widow Yulia Navalnaya took part in a noon protest against Putin on Sunday in Berlin.
Russia’s Central Electoral Commission head Ella Pamfilova (third from the right) attends a briefing at the Central Election Commission in Moscow
A member of an electoral commission shows a ballot, as they count votes, after polling stations closed on the final day of the presidential election in Saint Petersburg
People queue outside a polling station during Russia’s presidential election in Moscow
A police officer checks a man as he and other people queue outside a polling station during Russia’s presidential election in Saint Petersburg
(Pictured: A police officer checks a voter queuing at a polling station in Moscow) At least 65 people have been detained across 16 cities across Russia alone
Pictured: Voters queue to be checked by police at a polling station at noon local time in Moscow
Navalnaya’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh posted pictures on X of the dissident standing in line in the German capital where Russians queued up to vote. Activists said that some people chanted ‘Yulia, Yulia’, and clapped.
Over in Paris, a large queue of people was seen outside the Russian embassy, while protestors were seen in nearby green spaces holding signs up with messages critical of Putin written on them.
One protestor held a sign that accused the despot of being an assassin, while another compared Putin to Stalin, and called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ‘genocide’ and ‘terrorism.’
In Russia itself, the main vehicle of protest across the nation has been the ‘Noon against Putin’ movement.
Navalny’s allies broadcast videos on YouTube of lines of people queuing up at different polling stations across Russia at midday who they said were there to peacefully protest.
Navalny had endorsed the ‘Noon against Putin’ plan in a message on social media facilitated by his lawyers before he died. The independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper called the planned action ‘Navalny’s political testament’.
Demonstrations in Russia against Putin saw at least 65 people detained across 16 cities across the country alone, according to independent election monitoring group OVD-Info.
The Kremlin casts Navalny’s political allies – most of whom are based outside Russia – as dangerous extremists out to destabilise the country on behalf of the West.
It says Putin enjoys overwhelming support among ordinary Russians, pointing to opinion polls which put his approval rating above 80%.
With Russia’s vast landmass stretching across 11 time zones, protest voters were scattered rather than concentrated into a single mass, making it hard to estimate how many people turned up for the protest event.
