Election Fraud Alleged in Putin’s Victory in Russia. Trump Is Silent
It is largely believed that Russia is a democracy so long as you vote for Putin.
By Rakesh Raman
As it was expected, Vladimir Putin won Sunday’s presidential election to lead Russia for another six years.
Putin has ruled the country as either president or prime minister since 1999. In Sunday’s election, according to official results, he got more than 76% of the votes with an increase of 12% from his 2012 performance. Putin’s nearest competitor Pavel Grudinin received just 12% of total votes.
One of Kremlin’s staunchest critics Alexei Navalny, who was planning to challenge Putin in the election, was barred from the race.
Скоро введут уголовную статью “За сомнение в результатах выборов”.
— Андрей Мальгин (@andrey_malgin) March 19, 2018
While Putin is celebrating his victory, Navalny indicated he will challenge the election results. He also claimed that Putin has won the election by fraud, as there is a marked difference in vote count between the election commission’s data and his office’s records. It is largely believed that Russia is a democracy so long as you vote for Putin.
Данные ЦИК Башкортостана и штаба Навального о явке избирателей существенно расходятся https://t.co/NSH2wpUVOP
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) March 19, 2018
Meanwhile, President Trump has not yet commented on his Twitter account about Putin’s victory or the allegations of election fraud.
Although it is believed that Putin helped Trump win U.S. presidential election and both have friendly relations with each other, Trump has decided to stay quiet. Earlier in January, when protests took place against Putin in Russia, Trump was again silent.
Currently, special counsel Robert Mueller is leading an investigation to know the extent of Trump-Russia ties.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.
