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WATCH: Anti-Putin activists vandalize, set fire at voting stations in protest against election

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Some Russian voters have done more than vote to express their displeasure with sitting President Vladimir Putin, going so far as to commit acts of vandalism caught on camera that include setting fire to ballot boxes. 

Russian authorities arrested at least nine people on the first day of voting in an election that analysts and observers around the world have no doubt will hand Putin another term as leader, making him the longest-serving leader since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. 

Several people, caught on camera, set polling stations and voting booths on fire in protest. In other locations, one woman poured green dye into a ballot box, a man set off fireworks in a polling station and in Russian-occupied Ukraine someone set off an explosive device, French outlet Le Monde reported. 

A woman who poured disinfectant into a ballot box at a Moscow polling station faces between three and five years for her act, during which she shouted pro-Ukrainian slogans, Russian outlet BAZA reported. 

PUTIN PLANS FOR NEXT 6-YEAR TERM AS RUSSIANS VOTE IN ‘NEITHER FREE NOR FAIR ELECTIONS’

Fire voting station Moscow

Footage caught the moment a woman pensioner set fire to a voting booth in Moscow (East2West)

Authorities have not said whether they believe the incidents may be part of a larger, coordinated effort and protest or simply random incidents, despite the repeated use of green liquid to spoil ballots. The use of green liquid may serve as a reference to late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who in 2017 was attacked by an assailant splashing green disinfectant in his face. 

Prosecutors warned that the government would punish anybody involved in mass rallies and protests. The Associated Press reported that as many as a dozen incidents had occurred on the first day, though it remains unclear if all incidents led to arrests. 

14 KILLED IN RUSSIAN MISSILE ATTACK ON SOUTHERN UKRAINE’S ODESA

Green Liquid Ballot box

A woman poured green liquid into a Russian presidential election ballot box in a Moscow polling station, in an apparent protest. (East2West)

Voting will take place through Sunday, but more than a third of voters had cast their ballots by the time polls closed on Friday night. Voting has occurred both in-person and online, with online voting remaining open around the clock until 8 p.m. local time on Sunday. 

The U.N. Security Council met to protest the election being held in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. «As Russia holds sham elections in the territories of Ukraine temporarily under Russia’s control, the U.K. condemns the elections as fraudulent,» the U.K. said in a statement, with British Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki claiming, «These elections are a sham because of a simple truth: you cannot hold legitimate elections in someone else’s country,»

RUSSIAN FORCES COERCE THOUSANDS OF UKRAINIANS INTO ACCEPTING RUSSIAN PASSPORTS

A woman casts her ballot at her home during early voting for Russia’s presidential election in the village of Yersenevo, Republic of Karelia, on March 10, 2024.  (Photo by NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images)

Navalny, the strongest opponent of Putin’s government, died last month while in an arctic colony after collapsing in what prison officials claimed was a case of «sudden death syndrome,» but an anonymous paramedic claiming to work for a morgue told independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe that he saw bruising on the body consistent with a person being held down while having a seizure.

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The Associated Press labeled the remaining opposition candidates as «low-level politicians from token opposition parties that support the Kremlin’s line.» 

European Council President Charles Michel on Friday half-heartedly congratulated Putin for winning the election before polls even closed, saying Putin would have a «landslide victory» with, «No opposition. No freedom. No choice.» 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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INTERNACIONAL

Hezbollah fires heavy rockets at northern Israel after deadliest day of Israeli strikes on Lebanon

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BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired rockets with heavy warheads at towns in northern Israel, saying it used the weapons against civilian targets for the first time Thursday in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes the night before that killed nine, including what the group said were several paramedics.

There were no reports of Israelis hurt in the rocket attack, local media said. The Israeli military did not immediately offer comment on the rocket attack.

ODDS OF ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH WAR ‘INEVITABLE,’ EXPERTS FEAR: ‘TOTALLY PESSIMISTIC’

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7, concerns have grown that near-daily clashes along the border between Israel and Lebanon could escalate into a full-scale war. Airstrikes and rocket fire Wednesday killed 16 Lebanese and one Israeli, making it the deadliest day of the current conflict.

Lebanon Hezbollah Prayer Controversy

Spanish U.N. peacekeepers stand on a hill overlooking the Lebanese border villages with Israel in Marjayoun town on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. A war of words that has unfolded in Lebanon show longstanding schisms in the small country over Hezbollah, now amplified by the militant groups role in the Lebanon-Israel border clashes and by fears that an already crisis-hit Lebanon could be dragged into an all-out war.  (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Israel had killed 30 Hezbollah militants in the past week and had destroyed dozens of Hezbollah military sites in an effort to push the Iran-backed group away from the border.

The recent increase in violence has raised alarm in Washington and at the United Nations.

«Restoring calm along that border remains a top priority for President Biden and for the administration,» White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters, saying the U.S. is closely monitoring developments. «We’ve also been very, very clear: We do not support a war in Lebanon.»

Kirby said the U.S. is working to halt the fighting through diplomatic efforts. This needs to be a top priority for Israel and Lebanon, he said, and would allow displaced civilians to return home. Tens of thousands of people on both sides have fled the fighting.

At around sunset Thursday, a barrage of Katyusha and Burkan rockets was fired toward the Israeli village of Goren and Shlomi, a statement from Hezbollah said. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said the group had not previously fired Burkan rockets at civilian targets, but was now responding to the recent spate of Israeli airstrikes.

Lebanon’s state media reported that 10 paramedics were among those killed Wednesday. The Israeli military said it struck targets for Hezbollah and an allied Sunni Muslim group.

Hezbollah has frequently used Russian-made portable anti-tank Kornet missiles in recent months. More rarely, it has launched Burkan rockets which, according to the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, can carry a warhead that weighs between 300 kilograms (660 pounds) and 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds).

Hezbollah says its attacks aim to keep some Israeli divisions busy and away from Gaza, and Nasrallah says attacks on the border will only stop when Israel halts its offensive in Gaza.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon known as UNIFIL said it was imperative that «this escalation cease immediately.»

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«We urge all sides to put down their weapons and begin the process toward a sustainable political and diplomatic solution,» UNIFIL said. It added that the peacekeeping force remains ready to support that process in any way it can.

The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel. More than 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 50 civilians have died in Lebanon.

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