Thousands of Russians who moved to Armenia after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine appear to have voted against President Vladimir Putin in a tightly controlled presidential election that gave him a fifth term in office.
Official results of the weekend election released on Monday showed Putin garnering over 87 percent of the vote. Russia’s Central Elections Committee (TsIK) also reported a record high voter turnout of 77.4 percent.
In remarks shortly after he was declared the winner, Putin portrayed the election results as a show of national unity and strong popular support for his policies amid the continuing war against Ukraine. But Western leaders condemned the vote, with the White House saying they “are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him.”
The three-day election produced very different results in Armenia where several thousand Russians also cast ballots. Most of them voted for one of three relatively unknown, Kremlin-friendly politicians who supposedly challenged Putin.
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In Yerevan, Putin won only 38 percent of over 6,000 valid ballots cast, according to the TsIK tally. Almost 3,500 other Russian nationals voted for another candidate, Vladislav Davankov.
Putin prevailed in Gyumri, the country’s second largest city home to a Russian military base. He garnered 768 votes there, compared with 405 votes polled by Davankov.
Armenia – Russian nationals line up in Gyumri to vote in a Russian presidential election, March 17, 2024.
The election outcome in Armenia was clearly the result of many Russian immigrants heeding Russian opposition leaders’ calls for people opposed to Putin to go to the polls at noon, vote for a candidate other than the incumbent president and thus show the Kremlin that they are still a force.
The mostly young expats formed on Sunday an unusually long line outside the Russian Embassy, the only place in Yerevan where they could vote.
“There may have been those who voted for Putin among them,” said Sergei Tselikov, a media producer who settled in Armenia two years ago. “But those who waited in the line for eight hours wanted to make their voices heard, and I am sure that 95 percent of them were against Putin. That is why I don’t believe in the official figures.”
“Those who came here are against the war,” said another Russian man who took part in the “Noon Against Putin” protest in Gyumri.
The 71-year old Putin — who has ruled as either president or prime minister since 2000 — is now set to surpass Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s nearly 30-year reign to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than two centuries.