Following Putin’s expected landslide victory yesterday, Mr Snowden accused the Russian leader of stealing power from the people. The whistleblower also demanded the voters of Russia “take their future back”.
Mr Snowden, who is currently living in Russia, tweeted: “The ballot stuffing seen today in Moscow and elsewhere in the Russian election is an effort to steal the influence of 140+ million people.
“Demand justice; demand laws and courts that matter. Take your future back.”
Mr Snowden was granted asylum in Russia since 2013, after leaking US secret surveillance programmes to the media.
His accusations come after CCTV footage appeared to show voting station officials all over Russia stashing voting slips in ballot boxes.
One station even tried to block the CCTV camera with balloons.
Putin was re-elected for a record fourth term as president of Russia, winning 75 percent of public votes.
Another term will see him in power for almost 25 years, just behind former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in longevity.
During his victory speech outside Kremlin, Putin made a vow to put Russia’s interests first. He also denied any involvement in the poisoning of former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, branding the claims”nonsense”.
Several critics have also shamed the election as a con and stated that the Kremlin had even banned Putin’s leading opponent, Alexei Navalny, from the ballot.
The non-governmental monitoring group, Golo, has flagged about 2,000 incidents of ‘vote rigging’ at multiple polling stations, where some observers were stopped from monitoring several voting stations.
In one voting station in Dagestan, a man was seen stuffing a ballot box with slips at an empty polling station.
In another station within the same area, a group of wrestlers appear to start a commotion as a man continued filling up a ballot box with slips. And in a separate station, a Mother Superior in a group of nuns appeared to be checking on her group’s ballot votes.
The CCTV footage brings up harsh truths over the result the Russian election, as Putin heads to presidency for another six years.