Putin boasts of ‘record’ voter turnout, but journalists find millions of suspicious votes

Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed a “record” turnout in the State Duma elections and called the vote a show of support for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. At the same time, independent journalists have uncovered massive statistical anomalies in the results.

Vladimir Putin stated this during an online meeting with members of the Russian government.

According to him, there were alleged attempts to disrupt the electoral process through attacks on Moscow and other regions of the Russian Federation. He claimed that the high voter turnout indicated support for the Kremlin’s policies.

“Such an active, even record number of people who came to the polling stations to vote, shows that the people of Russia support our efforts aimed at strengthening the country,” Putin said.

He separately addressed the Russian military participating in the war against Ukraine, calling the elections a vote “for them.”

According to official data from the Russian Central Election Commission, turnout was 59.32% – the highest figure since 2011.

After processing 95.18% of the protocols, United Russia received 57.83% of the votes . According to the preliminary distribution of mandates, the party could receive 355 of the 450 seats in the State Duma – the most in its entire history.

At the same time, journalists from Vazhnye istorii stated that about 18.4 million of the 30 million paper votes cast for United Russia could have been falsified. According to their calculations, the party’s real support could have been about 35% , not almost 58%.

Novaya Gazeta Evropa came to a similar conclusion. Its statistical analysis gave a result of about 34% for United Russia, excluding anomalous polling stations. This is a statistical estimate, not a legally established fact of falsification of each specific ballot.

Previously, “Pryamiy” wrote that after counting the majority of votes, “United Russia” gained almost 58% . The Russian Central Election Commission is to announce the final results after the counting and consideration of complaints are completed.

In addition, United Russia could win a record 355 seats in the State Duma . According to preliminary data, dozens of participants in the war against Ukraine could also enter parliament from the party.

As a reminder, Ukraine called the Russian “elections” in the temporarily occupied territories a farce and stated that it does not recognize either the vote itself or its results.

The European Union also stated that it does not recognize the “elections” held by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine and promised sanctions against those involved in their organization.

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