In the face of a guaranteed victory for incumbent President Vladimir Putin, Russian citizens took to the streets in sporadic acts of protest during the presidential election. Despite these incidents, officials assure that they will have no impact on the election results.

On the first day of the three-day voting period on Friday, multiple incidents of civil unrest occurred across Russia and parts of occupied Ukraine. Russian media reported that two women were arrested on the outskirts of Moscow after pouring green dye into ballot boxes in an attempt to destroy voting slips. Such an act of protest is punishable by imprisonment of up to five years.

The chair of Russia's Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, referred to the protesters as "scum" and condemned their actions. She revealed that there were eight attempted arsons and 214 damaged ballots. But despite these isolated incidents, the main focus for both protesters and officials is on the overall turnout and the number of legitimate ballots cast.

Additionally, tension surrounding the election has been mounting since the recent death of opposition figure Alexei Navalny in an Arctic penal colony. Navalny's wife, Navalnaya, has called on supporters to protest the election by visiting polling stations en masse at noon on Sunday, urging Western governments to refuse to recognize the outcome.

The exact nature of the planned protest, known as "noon without Putin," remains unclear, with little guidance on the specific actions protesters are encouraged to take. Some proposals include staging sit-ins, spoiling ballots, or attempting to block access to polling sites.

Mobilized soldiers' wives also joined the protest by attempting to lay flowers outside the Kremlin. However, they were blocked by secret service agents and later had to relocate their demonstration to Victory Park. These women faced harassment by police, according to activist group The Way Home.

The high voter turnout in the presidential election is being treated by the Kremlin as a referendum on the ongoing Ukraine war. A strong turnout, particularly in support of Putin, will be seen as a sign of continued backing for the president despite Western sanctions and growing diplomatic isolation.

Although reports from parts of occupied Ukraine, including Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, accuse Russian military personnel of forcing Ukrainian citizens to vote at gunpoint, the exact number of such incidents remains unknown. Mariupol's city council shared photos on Saturday depicting small-scale acts of protest by Ukrainians coerced into voting, including spoiling ballots.

Results of the election, which saw more than 114 million eligible voters, including nearly 2 million abroad, are expected to be announced on Sunday. Given the lack of doubt about the outcome, Putin's victory is anticipated to be a landslide.

As the protests continue and the election draws to a close, it remains to be seen how these acts of civil unrest will influence the broader political landscape in Russia.