Hommam Al Nassim 
Russia’s presidential election entered its third and final day, after polls closed on Saturday, with voter turnout of more than 58%.
The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation announced that voter participation in the elections across the country was 60% as of the early hours of Sunday.
In the Chechen Republic, voter turnout exceeded 90%, while in the republics of Tuva, Donetsk, North Ossetia, the Kozpas regions and the Yamal Federal District, it was 80%.
The head of Moscow’s election commission, Olga Kirillova, confirmed that 4.4 million voters had cast their ballots via electronic and paper ballots in Moscow.
In a related context, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, confirmed that “the United States is using hackers to influence the conduct of voting in the Russian presidential elections.”
Russia’s ruling United Russia party said it was facing a large-scale cyber-attack that disrupted the use of the internet and targeted its services, adding that it had “suspended non-essential services to repel the attack”.
Earlier, the ambassador of special missions to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Gennady Askaldovich, announced that “electronic voting in the Russian presidential elections is not available from abroad due to cybersecurity threats.”
It is noteworthy that the candidates for the post of president in this election cycle are the current President Vladimir Putin (independent candidate), and 3 candidates from the parties represented in the parliament: Leonid Slutsky (Liberal Democratic Party), Vladislav Davankov (New People’s Party), and Nikolai Kharitonov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation).
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