Up to half of the votes for Putin could have been thrown in

About half of the ballots for Vladimir Putin - at least 31.6 million - were thrown out. Novaya Gazeta Europecame to these conclusions after its own calculations. The publication calls this a record scale of fraud in the presidential elections in Russia.

Journalists counted votes using the method of mathematician Sergei Shpilkin. This method allows you to determine how many ballots were counted for the winner by stuffing and rewriting protocols.

The authors compared the distribution of votes for different candidates with the turnout at each individual polling station. As Novaya Gazeta Europe writes, if the elections were held fairly, then the votes are distributed in the same way - the number of votes may change, but not the ratio in which they go to the candidates. Throwing in favor of one candidate affects the distribution of votes, increasing both turnout and results.

Using the Shpilkin method, journalists estimated the share of “anomalous” votes. They used voting results based on the processing of 97% of the ballots. Novaya Gazeta Europe calculated that without taking into account electronic voting, 74.5 million Russians took part in the elections, of which 64.7 allegedly voted for Putin. Based on the results of checking 100% of the ballots, Putin received 87.28% of the votes.

The Voice movement released a statement following the election results. It says Russia has never had a presidential campaign so inconsistent with constitutional standards.

Immediately after his “re-election,” Putin spoke the name of Alexei Navalny for the first time in 11 years. Speaking at a press conference, he confirmed reports of the impending exchange of the opposition leader for Russian prisoners held in prisons in the West. Later, Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskovsaid that he did not confirm the fact of negotiations.

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