Vladimir Putin has claimed a landslide victory in Russia’s presidential vote, as thousands in the country and around the world protested against his deepening dictatorship, the war in Ukraine and a stage-managed election that could have only one winner. In a vote denounced by the United States as “obviously not free nor fair”, Putin won 87% of the vote, according to exit polling published by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center and the Public Opinion Foundation. Across the weekend, people in Russia used dye, molotov cocktails and fires to protest at polling booths, while Russians abroad also took part in acts of protest to show their opposition to Putin and the war in Ukraine. Reports from the ground suggested queues suddenly formed at numerous polling stations across Russia’s big cities, as well as in Europe, as the clock struck midday. The protest action, labelled 'Noon against Putin', was proposed by the St Petersburg politician Maxim Reznik and endorsed by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny before his death in an Arctic prison. He called it a safe way for Russians inside and outside the country to congregate publicly and show their opposition to the president. On Friday, Russian prosecutors threatened any voters who took part in the action with five years in prison, while the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said protesters could face treason sentences of 20 years for destroying voting ballots. Putin’s election victory extends his 24-year rule until at least 2030. By 2029 his tenure will have surpassed that of Joseph Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union for 29 years, making Putin the country’s longest-serving leader since the Russian empire. Find out more about Putin’s “landslide” victory, and the protests against it, by heading to the link in bio. - @guardian