Putin's headaches have not disappeared with his 'win' in the sham Russian presidential elections.

As was to be expected, Putin won his election yesterday but not without,

".... independent election monitoring group Golos [reporting] hundreds of irregularities. They include webcams at polling stations obstructed by balloons and other obstacles, as this video from the Siberian city of Kemerovo posted by the group demonstrates: March 18, 2018

But Ella Pamfilova (right), head of the Central Electoral Commission, said there were only half as many reported violations compared to 2012, and that none had been serious." (BBC News : 19 March, 2018) (my emphasis)

The biggest election violation yesterday is the fact that this election was also held in Ukrainian Crimea.

At the UN, Ukrainian UN representative Volodymyr Yelchenko (left) appealed,

" ....  to the leadership of the United Nations in relation to the holding by the Russian Federation of presidential elections in the temporarily occupied Crimea.
...
"Ambassador Yelchenko in a letter to the UN Secretary-General, President of the Security Council and UN membership: Russian presidential elections in the occupied Crimea violate the UN Charter. The outcome of such illegal elections will be null and void," (UNIAN : 17 March, 2018) (my emphasis)

Already,

"Paris does not recognize the election of the Russian president in the illegally annexed Crimea. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France says the country supports sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, Radio Liberty reports." (UNIAN : 19 March, 2018) (my emphasis)

Similarly,

"A number of individual countries and the European Union have already confirmed that they will not recognize the election results in the area. The relevant statement has already been made by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini. Canada, Estonia and Norway also expressed their position on non-recognition of Crimea elections." (ibid UNIAN 19 March, 2018) (my emphasis)

Together with Pamfilova's admission of widespread election violations, removing the Ukrainian Crimean results from Putin's 'victory'  rather throws into strong relief the suspicion that the Kremlin results are grossly underestimating the simmering public discontent with Putin.

Putin's election win also comes in the wake of his attempted assasination of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, UK. As reported by Alice Klein,

"The poison used to target ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury was a Novichok nerve agent, UK prime minister Theresa May revealed yesterday.
...
Novichok nerve agents – also known as the “N-series” – were secretly developed by the former Soviet Union beginning in the 1970s." (New Scientist : 13 March 201) (my emphasis)

Rather desperately, Putin is trying to pin the source of his nerve agent on other countries.

"The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Sweden are all rejecting a suggestion by a Russian spokeswoman that the nerve agent which poisoned a former Russian double agent and his daughter might have originated in their countries.

...

The claim was made Saturday by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (left), who told Russia-24 television that the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Britain or Sweden were likely sources of the nerve agent." (ABC News (Associated Press) : Mar 17, 2018) (my emphasis)

Added to which,

"The Trump administration confirmed Thursday it was enacting the new sanctions on Russia, including individuals indicted last month by special counsel Robert Mueller, in a sweeping new effort to punish Moscow for its attempts to interfere in the 2016 US election." (Laura Smith-Spark and Radina Gigova : CNN : March 16, 2018) (my emphasis)

Putin's headaches have not disappeared with his 'win' in the sham Russian presidential elections.

If anything, his uncertainties continue to grow apace.

And this is when he is at his most dangerous.

(to be continued)