According to state media, Putin won with 87 percent of the vote

The Kremlin is apparently pulling out all the stops in the presidential election: In addition to intimidation of the military and coercion of civil servants to vote for Putin, election officials plan to use secret ink to whitewash the result. This was reported by the Russian opposition party Sirena.

Sources in Kursk and Rostov-on-Don describe how pens “with a secret in them” were handed out when polling stations were set up. The writing instrument came in boxes with the logo of the Russian Election Commission.

The video shows how the fraud takes place: Voters fill the form with their details and mark their preferred candidate. If it doesn't benefit Vladimir Putin, the ink on the paper can be burned with a standard lighter.

According to the Russian newspaper Gazeta, the tactic is not new: the use of secret ink has been widespread in regional, parliamentary and other elections in Russia since 2009. At that time, Duma deputy Nikolai Levichev pointed out the fraud – the Election Commission responded that there is no legal basis for banning the use of secret ink in elections. (go)