The incumbent president Vladimir Putin won with 88% of the vote, the highest percentage in a presidential election in post-Soviet Russia,[4] gaining a fifth term in what was widely viewed as a foregone conclusion.

[7][8] In November 2023, Boris Nadezhdin, a former member of the State Duma, became the first person backed by a registered political party to announce his candidacy, running on an anti-war platform.

As was the case in the 2018 presidential election, the most prominent opposition leader,[13][14] Alexei Navalny, was barred from running due to a prior criminal conviction seen as politically motivated.

The deadline to submit documents was 27 December 2023 for independents and 1 January 2024 for party-based nominations, with the commission already announcing the rejection of some candidates based on alleged issues with their paperwork.

[citation needed] In June 2023, a few posters advocating for Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group private military company, were noticed[71] in Krasnodar, with a QR code to a website hinting at the 2024 election.

"[73][75][76] When asked by a BBC journalist about his electoral campaign, Nikolay Kharitonov refused to answer why he thought he would be a better candidate than Putin, before proceeding to praise the latter for "trying to solve a lot of the problems of the 1990s" and consolidating the country for "victory in all areas".

[80][81] In the latter areas, a campaign called InformUIK was set up to encourage participation in the election, with its representatives going door-to-door escorted by armed men to compile voter lists and collect ballots from residences.

A resident of Kherson Oblast described the elections in his area as a "comedy show", noting that households were being visited by "two locals – one holding a list of voters and the other a ballot box – and a military man with a machine gun".

[87] Latvia-based Russian news outlet Meduza reported that Kremlin officials asked Russia's regional governments to secure 70% voter turnout and more than 80% support for Putin.

In Altai Krai, voters were to be given a chance to win sanctioned goods and appliances such as an iPhone in a raffle, provided that they upload pictures on VKontakte showing them at polling stations.

In Sverdlovsk Oblast, authorities set up an election day trivia quiz about the region's history with and offered 2,000 smartphones, 45 apartments, 20 motorcycles, and 100 Moskvich cars as prizes, but said that correct answers would not guarantee a win.

In Tatarstan, officials set a music festival in Kazan on 17 March that would be open to visitors upon presentation of a bracelet obtained at polling stations that would also guarantee free and unlimited access to public transportation, along with a chance to win in a raffle with three Lada Vesta cars at stake.

Students at a construction college in Perm Krai were ordered to vote inside the campus, with the school administration pledging to monitor turnout using video surveillance cameras.

On the first day of early voting on 27 February 2024, two bombs were detonated at the local offices of the United Russia party and near a polling station in Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast.

[102] When asked about the killing, the Ukrainian-appointed governor of the oblast, Ivan Fedorov, attributed the attack to "our resistance", adding that they were linked to Ukrainian secret services and that "it is abnormal when our citizens collaborate with Russians".

[28] During an incursion into Kursk and Belgorod Oblasts on 12 March, the Sibir Battalion, an armed Russian opposition group based in Ukraine, published a video condemning the elections, saying that "Ballots and polling stations in this case are fiction.

[107] Throughout the election, the border city of Belgorod was subjected to shelling and rocket attacks by Ukraine, killing two people in what most analysts believed to be an attempt to disrupt the vote and incite discontent against Putin by convincing Russians of his responsibility in bringing the war on Ukraine to Russian soil by launching the invasion in the first place, although the high turnout of 78 percent in Belgorod Oblast suggested that the strategy had led to increased support for Putin.

[108] On 25 March, the independent news outlet Mediazona reported that the Federal Security Service had arrested three people on suspicion of plotting an arson attack against a Putin campaign office in Barnaul, Altai Krai, prior to the election.

[113] Some voters uploaded images of them spoiling their ballots by writing messages such as "killer and thief" and "waiting for you in The Hague", a reference to the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Putin over war crimes in Ukraine.

[116] Exit polls on 17 March released by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center showed Vladimir Putin with 87% of the vote, 10% more than in 2018, Nikolai Kharitonov with 4.6%, Vladislav Davankov with 4.2% and Leonid Slutsky with 3%.

[123] According to the Vote Abroad project, Putin was also voted for by 4% of Russians living in Lithuania and the Czech Republic, 5% in Istanbul, Turkey, 6% in Argentina and the United Kingdom, 7% in Austria, Ireland and Slovakia, 8% in Estonia, Denmark and Yerevan, Armenia, 9% in Portugal, 10% in Thailand, Finland and Berlin, Germany, 11% in Madrid, Spain and Paris, France, 13% in Norway, 14% in Sweden and Hungary, 15% in Vietnam and the United States, 16% in Tel Aviv, Israel and Bern, Switzerland, 17% in Japan, 22% in Cyprus, 23% in Milan, Italy, 31% in Dubai, 35% in Chișinău, Moldova and Uzbekistan, 36% in Kyrgyzstan and 38% in Rome, Italy.

[127][128] On 29 January 2024, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) announced that the organisation would not participate in international monitoring of election, citing the lack of an invitation from Russia.

[129] On 17 March 2024, the Chair of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation (CEC), Ella Pamfilova, announced that 1,115 international observers and experts from 129 countries were monitoring the electoral process.

"[139] Prior to the release of official results, former president and deputy head of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev congratulated Putin on his "splendid victory".

[140] After his victory was confirmed, Putin held a news conference on 18 March calling his win a vindication of his policy of defying the West and his decision to invade Ukraine.

"[158] The French foreign ministry said the "conditions for a free, pluralist and democratic election were not met", but praised "the courage of the many Russian citizens who have peacefully demonstrated their opposition to this attack on their fundamental political rights.

"[160] Leaders of countries with neutral or friendly relations with Russia sent congratulations to Putin on his victory,[f] along with President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik, members of the Moldovan opposition, and Hamas political chairman Ismail Haniyeh.

[214] On the day of the action, Navalnaya joined queues outside the Russian embassy in Berlin[215] for about six hours before casting her vote for her husband and praising protesters for giving her "hope that everything is not in vain".

[114][154][217][218] In response to the protests, authorities in Moscow threatened to prosecute participants under Article 141 of the Criminal Code of Russia, which prescribes five years' imprisonment for the obstruction of elections or citizens' electoral rights.

[140] In response to the Noon Against Putin protests abroad, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova described the queues outside Russian embassies as evidence of support for the Kremlin.