Regime critic:

“Final result is a clear statement from Putin”

Russians abroad queued for hours in Salzburg to cast their vote

(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

While Vladimir Putin has once again been confirmed as President of Russia, the election results from Austria paint a different picture. Vladislav Davankov, a supposed liberal, was the winner of the election in Salzburg and Vienna. Critics of the regime nevertheless see the result as a sign of Putin.

The election is over, the result is fixed: Vladimir Putin is and remains - unsurprisingly - President of Russia. A queue hundreds of meters long formed outside the consulate in the city of Salzburg on election day.

Officially, 1437 Russians from abroad went to the polls in Salzburg on Sunday. In the end, however, the Russian election commission for Salzburg did not announce Putin as the winner, but the comparatively liberal Vladislav Davankov (52.68 percent).

Russian-born Natalia Korotkova was on assignment for the "Vote Abroad" association

(Bild: Markus Tschepp)

"Many deviations"

Natalia Korotkova conducted post-election surveys in Salzburg. The regime critic, working for the "VoteAbroad" association, came to a similar, yet completely different conclusion. Putin only received eight percent of the vote in the association's surveys outside the consulate, while the official figure was 21 percent.

"There are a lot of deviations that we can't explain," says the native Russian. She has lived in Germany since 2009. Together with numerous exiled Russians, she traveled to Salzburg for the election. "The election result is a statement, a demonstration of Putin's power," says Korotkova.