In France, less than half of Russians voted for Vladimir Putin

What do Russians in France vote for? Three days after the results of the elections which gave a large majority to outgoing President Vladimir Putin, re-elected for a fifth term, the votes of the diaspora in France show a large contrast with the official figures announced in Russia. In Paris, Marseille and the Alpes-Maritimes, an average of 46% of voters voted for Vladimir Putin - to whom official results across Russia give 87% of the vote. He is closely followed by the liberal candidate Davankov, who, coming third nationally with a meager score of 3.86%, obtained 32% of the vote in France.

This puppet opponent - who, behind his slightly more liberal positions, largely supported the head of the Kremlin - came first at the Russian embassy in Paris, with 38.14% of the votes. He is followed by Vladimir Putin who obtains 36.99%. Of the 3,658 Russians or Franco-Russians who voted in the capital, 20% destroyed their ballot paper.

In the south of France, Vladimir Putin obtains a slight majority of votes. At the polling station in Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Nice where a large part of the Russian diaspora has historically been concentrated, the head of the Kremlin won 558 votes, or 50.27%, compared to 29% for Vladislav Davankov. Some 15% of voters destroyed their ballot. This rate of voluntary cancellation of ballots, a sign of protest, is identical to Marseille. Of the 506 people who came to vote at the Russian consulate general in the Marseille city, 15.4% destroyed their ballot paper. Vladimir Putin obtained 51.6% of the vote, compared to 28.6% for his liberal opponent.

In terms of number of votes, out of these three polling stations, the two favorites however obtain a very close figure: 1896 votes for Vladimir Putin and 1705 for Vladislav Davankov.

It remains difficult to know the extent of mobilization for the election in comparison with the abstention rate, because the Russian diaspora in France has evolved since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Until 2021, France had 73,500 Russian immigrants (residents in France born in Russia) on its soil according to INSEE. But the mobilization in Russia, after the launch of the “special operation” in February 2022, pushed many families into exodus. In 2022, 2,616 people from Russia requested asylum in France according to the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra), almost twice as many as in 2021.

This strong contrast between the vote in Russia and that of the diaspora is found in most countries of Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. In some capitals, Vladislav Davankov even obtained a clear majority over Vladimir Putin. This is the case in Warsaw (Poland), Prague (Czech Republic) and The Hague (Netherlands) where he scored 51.01%, 59.89% and 56.88% of the votes respectively. Also in Yerevan (Armenia), his score is 49.85%, compared to 32.87% for Vladimir Putin.