Protests, arrests and charges on second day of election in Russia

(CNN) — On Russia's second election day, 29 polling stations in 20 Russian regions were attacked by protesters seeking to tarnish the presidential election, Ella Pamfilova, head of the election commission, told Russian state news agency Tass.

Several incidents were reported across Russia this Saturday, including a resident of Ivanovo setting a ballot box on fire at a polling station, according to the regional department, and others pouring green paint on ballots and ballot boxes.

Eight arson attempts were also recorded, and 214 caskets were damaged beyond repair, Pamfilova added.

A woman pours green ink into a ballot box to protest the election in Russia.

It comes on top of similar incidents caught on camera on the opening day of a three-day vote that will extend Vladimir Putin's long-held power.

Dissent has been banned in Russia since it launched its invasion of Ukraine two years ago.

“Taking into account the synchronization of incidents in different regions, this can be considered a deliberate and organized provocation,” Alena Bulgakova, head of the Russian Civic Chamber, said on Friday, according to state agency Ria Novosti.

Arrests and charges against protestors

At least 15 people were charged with criminal charges for “obstructing the work of election commissions”.

Ella Pamfilova assured that persons detained for disruptive activities “will not escape responsibility if a connection is revealed, including the Ukrainian security service.”

Pamfilova said that some of those arrested this Saturday for tampering with ballot boxes at polling stations told investigators that they acted for money from abroad and did not know they would face criminal charges.

According to Pamfilova, one of the prisoners was promised 100,000 rubles (US$1,080) for disrupting the vote.

Pamfilova said Russian voters received messages from Ukraine and “European countries” with instructions to cancel their ballots. Pamfilova does not provide evidence for this, nor does she indicate from which European countries the instructions came.

Boris Nadezhdin, a pacifist Russian politician whose candidacy for the Russian presidency was rejected by the authorities, described the actions as “sabotage designed for gullible and narrow-minded people,” according to SOTA, an independent Russian media outlet.

But he is quoted as saying that these “cases of personal arson and green paint do not have any serious impact”.

Condemnation of elections in occupied territories

More than 50 countries condemned the Russian elections in the occupied Ukrainian territories in a joint statement published Friday on the website of the US Embassy to the UN.

A woman casts her vote in Russia's presidential election at a polling station in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on March 16, 2024, amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict. (Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)

“Conducting elections on the territory of another UN member state without its consent is a flagrant disregard for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. Such elections are not valid under international law,” the statement said.

On Friday, the United Kingdom called the elections a “fraud” at a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine. “These elections are a sham because of one simple fact: you cannot hold legitimate elections in someone else's country,” said Ambassador James Kariuki, the UK's deputy permanent representative to the UN.

Kariuki said elections in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories “will not be recognized” and called on Russia to “immediately stop these elections”.

With reporting by Maria Knight and Richard Roth