Presidential elections in Russia have been hit by yet more chaos after a 'cyber attack' reportedly followed a series of attacks on polling stations.
The three-day vote, widely regarded by international observers as not being free or fair, is essentially a formality for Vladimir Putin, who is only standing against Kremlin-backed 'puppet' opposition parties.
On Saturday, his governing party United Russia claimed online systems related to the election had been targeted by hackers in a denial-of service attack.
It comes after multiple incidents of vandalism at polling stations were reported over the last 48 hours, including a firebombing and a number of people pouring green liquid into ballot boxes. The colour of the liquid is an apparent homage to the late Alexei Navalny, who in 2017 was attacked by a man who splashed green disinfectant in his face.
The second of voting on Saturday saw chemical sciences professor Emilia Nosova, 50, detained after also seeking to smuggle green liquid into a polling station in Yekaterinburg. She was seen on video being manhandled by a polling official, and is being held in detention for 15 days for ‘petty hooliganism’.
Aleksandra Karaseva, 21, is meanwhile accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a St Petersburg polling station, and has been remanded in custody for two months. A 32 year old woman threw a Molotov cocktail in Volgograd, hitting an election observer and sparking a fire.
Another woman, Alina Nevmyanova, 20, a beautician, was allegedly caught on camera pouring green liquid into a ballot box in Moscow. She is in custody and could face five years jail under election law but she has allegedly admitted acting on the orders of the Ukrainian secret services, which could mean prosecution under treason laws.
The woman’s shocked father said: “She is a fool…. how could this happen? She was supposed to be at work today. She had clients scheduled for the whole day. She works as a nail beautician.” Her sister said: “It seems to me that she was deceived by scammers. She couldn’t do it herself.” An unidentified woman tried to pour green liquid into a ballot box in Mayma, Altai region, while a pensioner was seen on CCTV setting fire to a polling booth in the capital.
Putin's ally Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, has demanded draconian treason laws be used against people who have targeted polling stations in protests. Many have been accused of working for Ukrainian intelligence. Medvedev, who was Russian president from 2008 to 2012, said: “They are traitors, and their actions can be classified much more strictly. This is not a child's game of matches or an innocent prank with greenery."
"This is direct assistance to those degenerates who are shelling our cities today. Criminal activists at polling stations must realise that their actions could result in twenty years [of jail]."
More evidence of electoral fraud emerged on Saturday, with one video catching an election official named Viktoria Gromakova come out of a voting booth and discreetly put several voting papers into a ballot box in Krasnodar. An even more flagrant case was filmed in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region when two election officials were seen stuffing a ballot box after polling had ended for the day. The cases are seen by monitoring organisations like Golos as highlighting election rigging in favour of dictator Putin.