The Know Daily - Monday 18 March 2024

_{Read in 5m 24s ∙ Listening to Fleetwood Mac ∙}

A striking shot of a football covered in barnacles has scooped top prize at this year’s British Wildlife Photography Awards 👇 Other shortlisted images include affectionate foxes and a very photogenic hare - the perfect procrastination scroll this Monday morning!  

🇷🇺 Russia’s election

President Vladimir Putin has claimed a landslide victory in a three-day presidential election that had an “all but certain outcome”.

Go on…
According to state-run exit polls released on Sunday, Putin won 87% of the vote, securing another six-year term as President. He is now set to be in power until at least 2030, noted BBC News.

However, Putin faced no credible opposition, with the three candidates up against him “rubber stamped” by the Kremlin. Western leaders have criticised the vote: Germany called it a “pseudo-election”, while the US said it was “obviously not free nor fair”, noted The Guardian.

What about the Russian opposition?
While the first day of voting saw sporadic protests, arson attacks targeting polling stations and destroyed ballot boxes, there was “no repeat of these incidents” after Friday, said Euronews. At least 80 Russians were detained over the three-day vote, they added.

Supporters of Alexei Navalny - Putin’s main opponent who died in an Arctic prison last month under mysterious circumstances - staged symbolic protests on Sunday. The “Noon against Putin” protests saw citizens frustrated with Putin’s rule head to the polling stations at the same time - and Navalny’s wife Yulia Navalnaya, who led the demonstration, praised those who turned up for giving her “hope that everything is not in vain".

What’s the bigger picture?
Putin’s victory speech focused on the war in Ukraine, noted Euronews, with the Russian president saying his main goals would be winning the war and “strengthening defence capacity and the military”.