A journalist claims that 22 million ballots have been officially forged in favor of Putin.
The re-election of Vladimir Putin with over 87% of the votes has faced widespread criticism outside of Russia, and within the country, several opposition media outlets have questioned the validity of the votes.
In the initial estimates by independent Russian media regarding the extent of fraud in the Russian presidential election held from Friday, March 15 to Sunday, March 17, the number of fake ballots is estimated to be between 20 to 30 million.
Meduza, a Russian investigative journalism site, wrote in an article that around 22 million ballots have been officially forged in favor of Vladimir Putin. Another Russian opposition media outlet, Novaya Gazeta Europe, has concluded that the fraud was even more extensive. According to their estimates, 316 million ballots were forged in favor of Vladimir Putin.
Matthew Wyman, a Russian political affairs expert at the University of Keele in the UK, says that the three estimates indicate an unprecedented scale of fraud in the history of Russian elections.