All polling stations in Moscow and in the North-Western, Central, Volga, Southern and Northern Caucasus federal districts closed at 8pm local time, 6pm in Italy, and the electoral commissions began counting the votes, Ria Novosti reports.
Long queues formed in front of several polling stations in central Moscowas ANSA noted at 12.
A queue of several hundred people had formed on the historic Arbat Street around midday, when the protest called by Navalny was scheduled. The police, present in force, limit themselves to monitoring the situation and regulating the flow of voters. Various media and social media also show queues at other polling stations, including one in St. Petersburg.
Long queues of voters also outside the polling stations located in various Russian embassies abroad, around midday. Novaya Gazeta Europe testifies to this by posting many videos and photos on social media. The images show many people in Astana, Kazakhstan, the same in Berlin, Istanbul and Sofia.
At least 74 arrested across Russia during protests on the final day of the presidential elections were reported by the NGO Ovd-Info. Seven, the organization specifies, are registered in Moscow, 5 in St. Petersburg and 23 in Kazan.
According to Moscow, a Ukrainian drone attack hit a polling station for the Russian presidential elections in the occupied part of the Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia: Tass writes, citing a local pro-Russian politician. The attack, writes the Russian agency, occurred in the town of Kamenka-Dneprovskaya, near the front line, and the affected building of the local House of Culture, which housed the polling station, caught fire. There were no victims, but the Russian Emergencies Ministry said that it was not possible to intervene to put out the flames because “enemy attacks continued”.
Two Molotov cocktails against the Russian embassy in Moldova
A person threw two Molotov cocktails at the Russian embassy in Chisinau, Moldova, where voting for the presidential elections was underway. “Two Molotov cocktails were thrown into the courtyard of the embassy, the attacker was arrested by the police,” the spokesman for the diplomatic mission, Anatoly Loshakov, told Tass.