Footage of ‘Russian election rigging’ as Vladimir Putin wins biggest ever victory with 75 per cent of votes
In the clips, polling station officials appear to stash voting slips in ballot boxes and block a CCTV camera at one station with balloons, while a Mother Superior appears to check the votes cast by her order
SHOCKING videos have emerged which allegedly show “ballot rigging” in Russia as Vladimir Putin secured his biggest ever victory in the presidential election.
In the clips, polling station officials appear to stash voting slips in ballot boxes and block a CCTV camera at one station with balloons, while a Mother Superior appears to check the votes cast by her order.
It comes as Putin comfortably extended his rule of Russia for another six years last night, winning 76.67 per cent of the vote – his highest score ever.
The Central Election Commission said communist Pavel Grudinin came in a distant second with 11.78 per cent.
Third was ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky with 5.66 per cent.
The only candidate to openly criticise Putin during the campaign, liberal TV star Ksenia Sobchak, won just 1.68 per cent.
Putin’s most serious rival, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was barred from the race.
Another term will take the Russian president to nearly a quarter century in power – second only to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
The win gives Putin a strong mandate to pursue his conservative nationalist policies at home and abroad.
In the wake of his victory, Putin will seek retribution as his nation was made to “grovel in the dirt” after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, British defence chief Admiral Lord West told .
And other experts have said Putin has made “no secret” of his plans to reverse the dissolution of the USSR, bringing back the powerful state in all but name.
During a victory speech outside the Kremlin he vowed to put national interests first – and dismissed accusation of involvement in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal as “nonsense”.
He spoke to the crowds after a video emerged from the Moscow suburb of Lyubertsy, where a blonde election official appears to stash voting slips in the ballot box.
Soon after, another official is seen putting what is thought to be more ballot papers in the box – all captured on CCTV.
Voting officials are supposed to be at polling stations to stop vote tampering and guarantee the integrity of the election.
Runner-up Grudinin said the election was “the dirtiest” since the Soviet Union collapsed.
He said: “Regretfully, Navalny was right. One can vote two or three times, and there are such examples in Moscow region.”
And third-placed candidate Zhirinovsky said: “There is no democracy [in Russia], there is no competition.
“[There is] just one candidate from the Kremlin and all others are ‘pugs’.”
Putin’s support was strongest in the corrupt, warlord-run regions of Dagestan and Chechnya – where almost 92 per cent of voters were reported to have backed him.
Critics pointed to these huge margins as evidence of foul play.
In one video from Dagestan, a man appears to fill a ballot box with slips at an empty polling station – as a female election official stands guard.
At another polling station – number 1126 – in the same region, a group of wrestlers create a commotion while a man stuffs a ballot box with papers.
Final election result with all votes counted
Vladimir Putin – 76.67%
Pavel Grudinin – 11.78%
Vladimir Zhirinovsky – 5.66%
Ksenia Sobchak – 1.68%
In another case caught on camera, a group of nuns vote while the Mother Superior appears to check their ballot slips.
And in a separate video, a female election official in the Siberian region of Kemerovo pulls balloons over a video camera to obstruct the view as officials counted votes.
Memes of the all-powerful Putin went wild on Russian social media after his crushing victory over all other candidates was announced.
The president was mocked as a tsar-for-life and depicted morphing into Soviet-era stagnation ruler Leonid Brezhnev, or Kim Jong-un.
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