This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Russians have gone to the polls in presidential elections that can only have one outcome: the re-election of Vladimir Putin to a fourth term in office.

The Kremlin is seeking legitimacy in Sunday’s vote by boosting turnout at the polls, while the opposition has called for a boycott and sent observers across the country to monitor for fraud.

In a potentially significant development, the Russian elections commission reported it was hit overnight by distributed denial of service hacking attacks from 15 countries. Russian state news agencies reported the attacks came from “unfriendly” countries and had been repelled.

Russian voters go to the polls – in pictures Read more

Russian officials have complained about foreign attempts to influence Sunday’s elections, mirroring complaints from the US about Russian meddling in 2016.

Russians have a choice of eight candidates, including the Communist Pavel Grudinin, whose title to a former state fruit farm has made him a millionaire, and Ksenia Sobchak, the daughter of Putin’s political mentor, who has presented a liberal programme. Polls suggest none besides Putin will receive more than 7% of the vote.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Members of a local winter swimming club visit a polling station in Barnaul. Photograph: Andrei Kasprishin/Reuters

Voting began in the Russian far-east at 8pm GMT on Saturday, and opened in Moscow nine hours later. More than 100 million people are eligible to vote. As of 2pm GMT, turnout nationwide was 51.9%, higher than at the same time during the 2012 elections.

Sunday will be the culmination of a broad get-out-the-vote campaign, in which enticements from iPhones to ice cream have been offered to fight voter apathy. Dozens of local municipalities were holding selfie contests to attract young voters.

At a polling station in central Moscow, there was a festival-like atmosphere. Voters were greeted by singing and dancing teenage girls, while there were sports games for children. Inside the polling station, cut-price fruit, vegetables and tinned fish were on sale. “I voted for Putin, because there is no other real choice,” said Natasha. “Of course, I realise these aren’t real elections, but why change anything. Putin as president suits me just fine.”

Gérard Depardieu, a citizen of Russia since 2013, cast his ballot at the Russian embassy in Paris. The elections committee announced 100% turnout at the International Space Station, where one astronaut voted.

The Kremlin is also expected to rely on a deep bench of budzhetniki, millions of workers from state factories to the army to schoolteachers, who receive their salaries from the government.

Activist observers complained online about voting irregularities. Vote monitors in Dagestan, a mostly Muslim republic in Russia’s North Caucausus, said they had been attacked after standing up to dozens of men who arrived together at a polling station. A woman in Saratov, a city on the Volga river, complained that her acquaintance had continued voting in every election despite having died 14 years ago.

About 50 election observers recruited by Alexei Navalny, the opposition figurehead who was barred from standing in the election, were monitoring voting in Chechnya, where Putin took 99.7% in the 2012 presidential election on a turnout of 99.6%. One of those observers, reached by The Guardian on Sunday afternoon, said that his polling station had seen 34% turnout with three hours left until the polls closed.



Critics accused Navalny of putting the volunteer observers at risk by sending them to the southern Russian republic, which is ruled by Ramzan Kadyrov, a former separatist fighter who is close to the Kremlin. Navalny said he expected Russian officials to ensure the safety of the observers.

Government employees, as well as workers as private companies, have reported coming under pressure to vote.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak casts her ballot. Photograph: Valery Sharifulin/TASS

“Colleagues, we ask you all to fulfil your civic duty by 16:30, and also to involve your relatives and friends. We expect vote coordinators to provide information every 90 minutes in order to allow time for reports to be drawn up,” read one email seen by the Guardian.

The Moscow-based company also said it would provide free cinema tickets to any employees who voted, as well as their friends and family. “Please be tactful when speaking to relatives and do not disclose the contents of this message.”

At the offices of Golos, an independent election monitoring group branded a “foreign agent” by the Kremlin, about 50 volunteers were fielding calls about alleged vote fraud from across Russia.

“People have been calling since early morning, especially from the regions” said Yulia Khartonova, a volunteer.

Golos was evicted from its previous offices in Moscow last week after the owner of the building came under pressure from police to tear up a rental agreement with the organisation.



Reports in Russian media and political consultants to the government have said the Kremlin wants at least a turnout of 65% to show Putin has a broad mandate to lead.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Members of a local Cossack community dance outside a polling station in Rostov-on-Don. Photograph: Sergey Pivovarov/Reuters

“My understanding is that the administration wants to pull, not push, people to these elections,” Valery Fyodorov, the head of a leading state-owned polling agency, VCIOM, told the Guardian during the campaign.

Putin delivered his vote early on Sunday morning at a polling station in central Moscow.

“What percentage of the vote would you consider for yourself successful?” a journalist asked the president. Putin hesitated for a moment then said: “Any amount of votes that gives me the right to perform the role of the president.”

Putin’s re-election will set him up for a fourth term in office, ending in 2024, making him the first Kremlin leader since Stalin to serve two decades as the country’s leader.