00:00 Polls have now opened in the Russian presidential election and we're outside the Russian embassy
00:07 in Lithuania where voting is taking place.
00:10 This is of course a country where so many political exiles live.
00:14 Politicians, political activists, journalists and the like who can no longer live in their
00:18 country including the team of Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption foundation who are based
00:24 here in Vilnius.
00:26 Now one of those political exiles is a guy called Roman Udot.
00:30 He has been monitoring elections in Russia for over 20 years and I spoke to him earlier
00:35 and he said that already he has come across evidence of ballot box stuffing in the early
00:40 hours of the election and he said the whole system there is corrupt.
00:45 Let's start with the ugliest thing.
00:47 They kill opponents.
00:49 They put them in jail.
00:50 They drive them in exile.
00:52 After that they don't let them run.
00:55 The far east regions began to vote several hours ago and already we have footage, we
01:02 have photos of ballot box stuffing.
01:05 There are a growing number of voices saying not only is this election fraudulent but afterwards
01:10 when President Putin assumes another six year term that that leadership should be considered
01:15 illegitimate by the West.
01:17 One of the reasons is voting is taking place currently on the occupied areas of Ukraine
01:23 that Russia has illegally annexed.
01:25 Alena Hlivko is a former Ukrainian MP.
01:28 She said Western leaders should take the lead on this and declare Putin's presidency illegitimate.
01:35 If the Western governments recognise those elections as fair, free and legitimate where
01:40 they will force occupied territories and civilians in those areas to go vote in the sham election,
01:47 that means de facto Western governments recognising Ukrainian territories now being part of Russia
01:52 and we can't possibly let that happen.
01:55 The polls are open for three days and Navalny's team are calling for Russian voters to turn
02:00 up at polling stations like this one and inside Russia on Sunday in the middle of the day.
02:06 They're calling it noon against Putin and they're hoping it will send a message to President
02:10 Putin they oppose his leadership and his war in Ukraine.
02:15 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments