MOSCOW: Russian police detained at least eight people Friday for acts of vandalism at polling stations on the first day of voting in presidential elections, officials said.
Authorities did not say if the protests were directed against longtime leader Vladimir Putin, and state-media reports said voting was “continuing as normal.”
In Moscow, a video published by the independent SOTA news outlet showed an elderly woman setting a voting booth alight, filling a polling station with smoke before she is detained by police.
Another video in the capital showed a woman pouring dye into a ballot box. She was detained and charged with “obstructing the exercise of electoral rights,” investigators said.
Four others in the Russian regions of Voronezh, Karachay-Cherkessia and Rostov were also arrested for pouring dye into ballot boxes, officials said.
In the remote Siberian region of Khanty-Mansi, a woman was detained for trying to burn a ballot box with a Molotov cocktail, voting officials said.
“In the city of Kogalym at polling station No. 484, an unsuccessful attempt was made to set fire to a stationary ballot box using a Molotov cocktail,” the region’s election commission said.
In the Chelyabinsk region, police detained a man who tried to set firecrackers off at a polling station, the TASS news agency reported, citing the regional government.
Similar incidents of vandalism were also reported in Saint Petersburg and in the annexed Crimean peninsula, according to local media reports.
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Russia detains eight for polling station vandalism
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Russia detains eight for polling station vandalism
- Authorities did not say if the protests were directed against longtime leader Vladimir Putin
- In Moscow, a video published by the independent SOTA news outlet showed an elderly woman setting a voting booth alight
Cambodia demands Thailand withdraw troops, week into border truce
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia called on neighboring Thailand on Saturday to pull out its forces from areas Phnom Penh claims as its own, one week since a truce halted deadly clashes along their disputed border.
The decades-old dispute between the Southeast Asian neighbors erupted into military clashes several times last year, with fighting in December killing dozens of people and displacing around one million on both sides.
The two countries agreed a truce on December 27, ending three weeks of clashes.
Cambodia says that during that period, Thailand seized several areas across four border provinces.
In a statement on Saturday, Phnom Penh’s foreign ministry demanded the withdrawal of “all Thai military personnel and equipment from the territory of the Kingdom of Cambodia to positions fully consistent with the legally established boundary.”
The Thai army has rejected claims it had used force to seize Cambodia territory, insisting its forces were present in areas that had always belonged to Thailand.
The Cambodian foreign ministry also called on Thailand to immediately end “all hostile military activities” along the frontier and “within Cambodian territory.”
The two nations’ border conflict stems from a dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800-kilometer (500-mile) border, where both sides claim territory and centuries-old temple ruins.
On Friday, Cambodia’s Information Minister Neth Pheaktra accused Thailand of launching the “illegal annexation” of the border village of Chouk Chey.
The Thai army disputed Phnom Penh’s narrative, and Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said his country “has never breached another country’s sovereignty and has acted in line with international regulations.”
Anutin was speaking on Friday while visiting troops deployed to the border province of Surin.
The decades-old dispute between the Southeast Asian neighbors erupted into military clashes several times last year, with fighting in December killing dozens of people and displacing around one million on both sides.
The two countries agreed a truce on December 27, ending three weeks of clashes.
Cambodia says that during that period, Thailand seized several areas across four border provinces.
In a statement on Saturday, Phnom Penh’s foreign ministry demanded the withdrawal of “all Thai military personnel and equipment from the territory of the Kingdom of Cambodia to positions fully consistent with the legally established boundary.”
The Thai army has rejected claims it had used force to seize Cambodia territory, insisting its forces were present in areas that had always belonged to Thailand.
The Cambodian foreign ministry also called on Thailand to immediately end “all hostile military activities” along the frontier and “within Cambodian territory.”
The two nations’ border conflict stems from a dispute over the colonial-era demarcation of their 800-kilometer (500-mile) border, where both sides claim territory and centuries-old temple ruins.
On Friday, Cambodia’s Information Minister Neth Pheaktra accused Thailand of launching the “illegal annexation” of the border village of Chouk Chey.
The Thai army disputed Phnom Penh’s narrative, and Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said his country “has never breached another country’s sovereignty and has acted in line with international regulations.”
Anutin was speaking on Friday while visiting troops deployed to the border province of Surin.
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