© Reuters. Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition chief who died in a jail camp, stands in a queue exterior the Russian Embassy on the ultimate day of the presidential election in Russia, in Berlin, Germany, March 17, 2024. REUTERS/Anneg
By Man Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW (Reuters) – 1000’s of individuals turned up at polling stations throughout Russia on Sunday to participate in what the anti-Kremlin opposition stated was a peaceable however symbolic political protest towards the re-election of President Vladimir Putin.
In an motion referred to as “noon against Putin”, Russians who oppose the veteran Kremlin chief went to their native polling station at noon to both spoil their poll paper or to vote for one of many three candidates standing towards Putin, who’s extensively anticipated to win by a landslide.
Others had vowed to scrawl the identify of late opposition chief Alexei Navalny, who died final month in an Arctic jail, on their voting slip.
Navalny’s allies broadcast movies on YouTube of strains of individuals queuing up at totally different polling stations throughout Russia at noon who they stated had been there to peacefully protest.
Navalny had endorsed the “Noon against Putin” plan in a message on social media facilitated by his legal professionals earlier than he died. The impartial Novaya Gazeta newspaper referred to as the deliberate motion “Navalny’s political testament”.
“There is very little hope but if you can do something (like this) you should do it. There is nothing left of democracy,” one younger lady, who didn’t give her identify and whose face was blurred out by Navalny’s crew, stated at one polling station.
One other younger lady at a distinct polling station, whose id had been disguised in the identical method, stated she had voted for the “least dubious” of the three candidates working towards Putin.
A male scholar voting in Moscow informed Navalny’s channel that folks like him who disagreed with the present system wanted to go on dwelling their lives regardless.
“History has shown that changes occur at the most unexpected of times,” he stated.
Regardless of the protesters – who symbolize a small fraction of Russia’s 114 million voters – Putin is poised to tighten his grip on energy within the election that’s sure to ship him a giant victory.
PROTEST
The Kremlin casts Navalny’s political allies – most of whom are based mostly exterior Russia – as harmful extremists out to destabilise the nation on behalf of the West. It says Putin enjoys overwhelming assist amongst strange Russians, pointing to opinion polls which put his approval score above 80%.
With Russia’s huge landmass stretching throughout 11 time zones, protest voters had been scattered fairly than concentrated right into a single mass, making it onerous to estimate how many individuals turned up for the protest occasion.
The scale of the queues at every polling station proven on Navalny’s channel ranged from just a few dozen individuals to what regarded like a number of hundred individuals.
Reuters journalists noticed a slight enhance within the move of voters, particularly youthful individuals, at midday at some polling stations in Moscow and Yekaterinburg, with queues of a number of hundred individuals, and in some locations even 1000’s.
Some stated they had been protesting although there have been few outward indicators to tell apart them from strange voters.
Leonid Volkov, an exiled Navalny aide who was attacked with a hammer final week in Vilnius, estimated tons of of 1000’s of individuals had come out to polling stations in Moscow, St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and different cities.
Reuters couldn’t independently confirm that estimate.
At polling stations at Russian diplomatic missions in Australia, Japan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Germany, Britain, tons of of Russians stood in line at midday.
In Berlin, Yulia, Navalny’s widow, confirmed up on the Russian embassy to participate within the protest occasion there together with Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesperson. Different Russians current clapped and chanted her identify.
In London, 1000’s queued in close to silence to vote on the Russian embassy.
“We haven’t been heard for past 30 years. Nobody listened to us. We moved, we emigrated, and even here, far away from Russia, we feel the consequences of not us not being heard,” stated voter Natalia Cherednikova.
“This year is so important just to be there for ourselves, even though we all (are) …fatalistic in terms of the meaning of it and that nobody really cares. It’s just for ourselves that we’ve been here. We have voted. We showed up.”