🇷🇺🗳 How Putin voted in Russia's presidential elections over the years

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

"Basically a declaration of war against Russia," German activist and businessman Kim Dotcom commented on Macron's statements about the absence of red lines for France:

"Let’s hope the French rise up to remove this mad man from power," he wrote on X.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Russian soldier infiltrates trenches full of Ukrainian fighters single-handedly

To eliminate Ukrainian militants attempting to break through positions on the border of Russia's Belgorod region, a Russian soldier bravely approached a trench, tossed a grenade inside, and swiftly rejoined his fellow soldiers.

Remarkably, he emerged unscathed.

Thanks to his courageous act, a significant number of Ukrainian fighters were injured or killed, enabling the Russian troops to successfully defeat the enemy.

A video from social media

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺Citizens of Russia's Belgorod went to vote immediately after the cancellation of the missile threat from the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Earlier, due to the missile threat, people who came to vote were forced to leave the polling station and evacuate to shelter.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹✈️ The crew of a Russian Su-25 attack aircraft launched a missile attack on units of the Ukrainian troops in the north of the DPR.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the targets were successfully hit.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

▪️Russia's presidential election kicks off

▪️One-way ticket to the moon Ukraine: Nearly half of the foreign mercs have already been annihilated by the Russian Armed Forces in the special operations zone.

▪️Is Joe Biden being held captive by his own staff? Watch disturbing footage of the POTUS being denied the opportunity to speak to the press

▪️Get a glimpse of Russia’s brand-new Mi-35P chopper with top-notch guns.

Here’s even more stories for you:

▪️Good for business, but bad for the battlefield. A Sputnik correspondent explains the reasons why Abrams and Leopard battle tanks are performing abysmally against the Russian army.

▪️Why the Czech-led ammo coalition is unable to galvanize the Ukrainian army

▪️What is the US getting wrong about the Houthis?

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🗳On the first day of the presidential elections, over a million people took part in remote voting on Russia's federal online platform, according to the data of the monitoring portal.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🗳Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Defense Ministry Valery Gerasimov voted in the presidential elections of the Russian Federation together with servicemen of the United Group of Forces at one of the polling stations in the Southern Military District.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺 Everything you need to know about Russia’s 2024 presidential elections

Russian citizens will head to the polls on March 15-17 to vote in 2024 presidential election. There are 112.3 million eligible voters inside Russia, and around 1.9 million eligible voters reside abroad.

Voter turnout is expected at 71%, as per the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM).

What’s new about 2024 elections?

E-voting, a remote electronic voting system, is being used for the first time to elect a Russian president. Voters in 29 Russian regions will be able to cast their ballots remotely.

🟥 Electronic ballot processing system uses a special scanner to read and process marked paper ballots and tally the results.

🟥 Mobile Voter mechanism provides online voting.

🟥 Elections state automated system is information software that ensures that ballots are counted in an accurate and rapid manner.

There are four candidates vying for the top office:

🔶 Self-nominated candidate and incumbent President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin;

🔶 Communist Party nominee Nikolay Kharitonov;

🔶 Liberal Democratic Party nominee Leonid Slutsky;

🔶 New People party nominee Vladislav Davankov.

Who will observe the voting process?

📹 Election observers are Russian citizens who monitor compliance of election procedure with the law, supervise the process and record possible violations.

📹 200 parliamentary international observers have been accredited to monitor the elections in Russia, delegations from 36 countries are already arriving.

👉 Follow the link to learn more

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🗳Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voted in the Russian presidential election

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️Over the past three days, all attempts by Ukrainian militants to invade Russia's Belgorod and Kursk regions have been suppressed, Russia's Defense Ministry reports.

The total losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine amounted to more than 1.5 thousand servicemen (about 500 - irretrievable), 18 tanks and 23 armored combat vehicles were destroyed.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️ The Russian Defense Ministry provides details of yesterday's attempt by a Ukrainian sabotage group to infiltrate the Russian Belgorod region:

▪️ The Ukrainian sabotage group, consisting of special forces fighters and foreign mercenaries, landed troops on Mi-8 helicopters about a kilometer from the border.

▪️ The Ukrainian militants entered several houses on the outskirts of the village of Kozinka (Belgorod region), while trying to get deeper into the area, they were discovered and stopped by the Russian military and border guards.

▪️ The enemy was hit by artillery and aircraft, to exclude the approach of reserves, the area was remotely mined.

▪️ Having suffered significant losses, the Ukrainian militants began to retreat. A group of saboteurs tried to gain a foothold in one of the houses on Republicanskaya Street of the village, but was blocked.

▪️ The remnants of the Ukrainian sabotage group, retreating to the territory of Ukraine, entered a minefield, where they were destroyed.

▪️ At the same time, the enemy group advancing to evacuate the wounded and dead was eliminated by MLRS fire.

▪️ Total Ukrainian losses amounted to over 50 personnel. Control over the settlement has been fully reestablished, and clearing operations are underway.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The turnout of voters in the Russian presidential elections in the whole country is 5.42% as of 11:36 a.m. Moscow time.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

International Monitoring of the Russian Presidential Election: 706 observers from 106 countries have been accredited.

"I would like to express my great respect for the courage of the people who, despite pressure and threats, came to our country to get objective information about the elections. They are ready to observe in any region, including the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions," said Ella Pamfilova, chairwoman of the Central Election Commission.

According to preliminary data, international observers will visit at least 52 regions.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

'Irresponsible': French MP accuses Macron of dragging his country into war with Russia

French President Emmanuel Macron has reaffirmed his willingness to put his country at risk of war with Russia, tweeted Arnaud Le Gall, a member of the left-wing La France Insoumise (Unbowed France) party.

Le Gall blamed Macron for what the lawmaker described as the French president's "irresponsible" behavior.

This comes after the French president again refused to rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine, but said they weren't needed at the moment.

"We're not in that situation today," but "all these options are possible," Macron said in an interview with French national television when asked about the prospect of the aforementioned troop deployment.

The French leader raised the same prospect last month, in comments that caused an uproar among other European leaders, who insisted they had no plans to deploy their countries' forces.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on the reasons for the attacks on Russian regions: These are attempts to cast a shadow on the presidential elections and destabilize the situation.

Peskov also commented on the reports of a secret CIA operation against the Chinese authorities: We experienced such activities ourselves.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The UK is in a state of undeclared war with Russia, but the British themselves do not even realize it, said Richard Dearlove, former head of Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence service."

"If you stopped anyone in the street here in the UK and asked them whether they thought Britain is at war, they’d look at you as if you were mad," Dearlove told Politico.

"But we are at war — we’re engaged in a gray war with Russia, and I am trying to remind people of that," he said.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🗳 Russian cosmonauts from the International Space Station voted in the elections through a trustee, mayor of the Russian city of Korolyov, known as the "space capital" of Russia.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Who has already cast their ballots in the 2024 Russian presidential elections?

About 1.6 million voters have already used the E-voting remote electronic voting system to make their choice in the 2024 Russian presidential elections, due to take place for three days till March 17.

The heads of many Russian regions, leaders of political parties, and an array of senior officials, have already cast their ballots, including:

• Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov;
• Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu;
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov;
• Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov;
• State Duma (Russia’s Lower House) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.

This year, turnout is expected to be at 71%, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) predicts.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Who's running in Russia's 2024 presidential race?

There are four candidates vying for the top office:

▪️Vladimir Putin, self-nominated candidate and incumbent president, 71, has participated in four presidential elections. He specializes in law, in terms of academic degrees, Putin holds a doctorate in economics. The current head of state has not published an election program. Putin outlined his vision of the country's development for the next six years in a message to the Federal Assembly on February 29, 2024.

▪️Nikolai Kharitonov, Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) nominee, 75, was already nominated for the post of President of Russia in 2004. He specializes in agrarian studies, also holds doctorates in economics and sociology. The candidate proposes returning strategic sectors of the economy to state control, prohibit the privatization of state and municipal enterprises, and nationalize foreign assets.

▪️Leonid Slutsky, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) nominee, 56, is running for president for the first time. He specializes in management. In his election program, Slutsky proposes completing his campaign by organizing a large-scale offensive by the Russian Army, as well as confiscating the property of the emigrants in favor of the state.

▪️Vladislav Davankov, New People Party nominee, 40, is the youngest presidential contender, specializes in history. In the field of foreign policy, Davankov suggests proceeding from the principle of "maximum pragmatism", achieving peace and negotiating with Ukraine on Russian terms.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🗳Turnout in the Russian presidential elections in the whole country now sits at 10.40% at 14.37 Moscow time, according to data from the Central Election Commission

Subscribe to @SputnikInt