Putin strolls to victory – but his opponents humiliate and outfox him

On paper, at least, it must have looked so straightforward. Vladimir Putin wanted to fix a presidential election to show the world that ordinary Russians love and admire him and support his war in Ukraine.

With total domination of the media, which pumps out hardcore pro-Kremlin propaganda, complete control of the central election committee, which cancels Putin’s opponents, and a well-oiled vote-rigging machine, surely nothing could go wrong.

Except it did, spectacularly.

Putin was humiliated and outfoxed by his opponents in an empowering and subtle nationwide protest that reminded suppressed Russians opposed to his authoritarian rule that they are not alone.

“It was just wonderful,” one person in Russia who attended one of the Noon Against Putin protests told me.

Putin’s opponents turned his election against him by calling for silent flash mobs at midday on Sunday at polling stations across the country – the very places where the Kremlin wanted people to show their fealty by voting for the regime.

Protests are banned in Russia, and demonstrators cannot stand in a square and shout anti-Kremlin slogans because they are easy prey for the Kremlin’s police.

It is far more complicated for police to arrest thousands of people who suddenly turn up en masse at polling stations, the ground zero of Putin’s biggest propaganda project.

The plan was daring and ingenious, but nobody was quite sure how well it would work out, especially as the Kremlin had threatened people with lengthy prison sentences for protesting at the election.

We now have our answer. It appears to have been supported by thousands of Russians, mainly in urban centres, in a widespread and deep-rooted show of opposition that far exceeded expectations.

The protesters smiled and posed for photos before spoiling their ballots with scrawls taunting Putin, glorifying his opponents and calling for peace with Ukraine.

Human rights defenders said police detained dozens of protesters at polling stations but, essentially, officers appear to have looked the other way.

The flash mob plan was signed off by Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader, only a few days before his death in a prison in the Russian Arctic and, in many ways, Sunday’s protests were his revenge.

Yulia Navalnaya, his widow and successor as Russia’s main opposition leader, was cheered and applauded when she joined a queue outside the Russian embassy in Berlin at midday.

And even before the flash mobs, ordinary Russians appeared to have been infused with Navalny’s spirit of defiance, pouring green ink into ballot boxes and setting fire to polling booths during the first two days of voting.

Of course, the Kremlin’s vote-fixing machine ensured an emphatic victory for Putin, which his slavish propaganda machine will use as justification for his invasion of Ukraine – but the world now knows for certain that thousands of ordinary Russians hate him.

The sight of his enemies celebrating and ordinary Russians smiling as they joined flash mob protests will infuriate the Russian president. His post-election “victory” shampanskoye no doubt tasted less sweet on Sunday.