Woman, 20, pours disinfectant into ballot box in ‘protest over Putin election’

16 March 2024 , 08:11

614     0

Woman, 20, pours disinfectant into ballot box in ‘protest over Putin election’

A woman was caught on video seemingly pouring disinfectant into a Russian ballot box as she “protested” against Vladimir Putin.

The Presidential vote began on Friday and will last through to Sunday, so ballots can be cast across the vast country's 11 time zones. Polling stations have also been opened in illegally annexed regions of .

Russians can also vote online for the first time in a presidential contest, and authorities claimed more than 200,000 people in Moscow voted via the internet soon after the polls opened. But the eventual results are very unlikely to come with any surprises as Mr Putin, 71, is running for his fifth term virtually unchallenged.

The situation has inflamed several people in Russia, including a woman in Moscow caught pouring disinfectant into a box. Local reports named her as a 20-year-old nail artist named Alina N, who then shouted pro-Ukrainian slogans, reported BAZA. She faces three to five years in prison. However, Mash news outlet reported 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.

Meanwhile another woman doused a voting booth in a flammable liquid and then set it alight. Three more cases were opened due to the damage to ballots with brilliant green liquid. In Karachay-Cherkessia, a woman poured the green disinfectant into a ballot box.

Putin accused of surrounding himself with same 'actors' at series of events

The woman was caught on video pouring the liquid into the ballot box (Social media/east2west news)

A 62-year-old man did the same in Samarskoye village, Rostov region. A woman poured the green disinfectant into a ballot box in occupied Crimea, where the election is being held illegally under international law. All were detained.‌ Mash reported: “All those detained for damaging ballots are now being checked for cooperation with the Ukrainian special services.”‌

Several other similar incidents have taken place (Social media/east2west news)

One theory is that they were persuaded to carry out the attacks by phone scammers working for Ukrainian intelligence. A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a St Petersburg polling station by a young woman, it was reported.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said earlier week that the ballot "will not be free and fair". Explaining how Putin will dominate the process, Sam Greene, director for Democratic Resilience at the Centre for European Policy Analysis in Washington meanwhile said: "The elections in as a whole are a sham. The Kremlin controls who's on the ballot. The Kremlin controls how they can campaign. To say nothing of being able to control every aspect of the voting and the vote-counting process."

Antony Clements-Thrower