Voting in Russian Presidential Election Underway in US Capital

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Dozens of Russian citizens are heading to a polling station at the Embassy of Russia in Washington DC to cast their ballots in the Russian presidential election, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov told reporters that he hoped that the US authorities would take an interest in the acts of provocations that occurred during the early voting in the Russian presidential election.

"Everything went well, democratically, in accordance with the Russian laws… I cannot say that everything went 100 percent as we wanted, because, unfortunately, there were acts of provocations," Antonov told reporters.

Antonov explained that one of the buildings where the voting was to take place was filled with some filth. Besides, a number of cases were recorded when the people who were allowed to use their buildings for voting received threats and subsequently rejected this idea.

On a sunny day, the Russian citizens of various ages flow to the Russian Embassy to vote in the 2018 presidential elections. Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov has already cast a ballot in the election.

"For us, any kind of elections has always been a big holiday. I remember when I was a kid and my parents were taking me with them to the election, it was always a festive event in the life of my family… I want to see my country rich, strong and democratic," Antonov told reporters.

The ambassador stressed that he was pleased that Russian citizens were able to cast ballots in the United States.

"I am very glad that we have done everything possible here in the United States so that every citizen of the Russian Federation could implement their constitutional right, and decide today what kind of Russia they want to have," Antonov stated.

🇷🇺Polling station 8273 in Washington, DC is now open! pic.twitter.com/KlocVPn61f

— Russia in USA 🇷🇺 (@RusEmbUSA) March 18, 2018

The representatives of the Russian and foreign media are present at the polling station. The observers from two presidential candidates are monitoring the process as well.

Election voting underway at the Russian embassy here in DC pic.twitter.com/uDgVK91Don

— Kylie Atwood (@kylieatwood) March 18, 2018

The voters are served with some Russian sweets with coffee and tea. The embassy also prepared souvenir mugs for the voters.

The voting is also taking place in Houston, Texas, Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon.

READ MORE: Process in Details: Presidential Election in Russian Federation

Russians are choosing from eight candidates: Sergey Baburin from All-People's Union, Communist Party's Pavel Grudinin, incumbent President Vladimir Putin, Civil Initiative's Ksenia Sobchak, Communists of Russia's Maxim Suraykin, presidential commissioner for entrepreneurs’ rights Boris Titov, the Yabloko party's Grigory Yavlinsky, and the Liberal Democratic leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky.