Navalny posted a message on social media supporting the “Face Putin at Noon” plan.
Moscow:
Thousands of people showed up at polling stations across Russia on Sunday in what the anti-Kremlin opposition said was a peaceful but symbolic political protest against President Vladimir Putin’s re-election.
In an operation dubbed “Noon Against Putin,” Russians opposed to the old Kremlin leader went to local polling stations at noon to either destroy ballots in protest or vote for one of the three anti-Putin candidates , who is widely believed to be against Putin. Won by a landslide.
Others have vowed to paint ballots with the name of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison last month.
Navalny’s allies posted videos on YouTube showing people lining up at different polling stations across Russia at noon in what they said were peaceful protests.
Before Navalny’s death, his lawyer posted a message on social media supporting the “Noon Against Putin” initiative. The independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper called the planned operation “Navalny’s political testament.”
“There’s little hope, but if you can do something (like this) you should do it. Democracy is gone,” said a young woman whose name was not used and whose face was blurred by Navalny’s team. A polling station.
Another young woman at another polling station, whose identity was similarly disguised, said she voted for the “least suspicious” of the three candidates running against Putin.
One male student who voted in Moscow told Navalny’s channel that people like him who disagree with the current system need to continue living no matter what.
“History shows that change always happens when least expected,” he said.
Although the protesters make up only a small portion of Russia’s 114 million voters, Putin is poised to tighten his grip on power in an election that is sure to give him a resounding victory.
The Kremlin views Navalny’s political allies, most of whom are based outside Russia, as dangerous extremists who destabilize the country on behalf of the West. Putin enjoys overwhelming support among ordinary Russians, the report said, noting that polls show his approval rating exceeds 80 percent.
Because Russia is so vast, spanning 11 time zones, protest voters are dispersed rather than concentrated, making it difficult to estimate how many people took part in the protests.
Navalny’s channel showed the number of people waiting in line at each polling station ranged from dozens to hundreds.
Reuters reporters saw a slight increase in the flow of voters, especially young people, at some polling stations in Moscow and Yekaterinburg at noon, with hundreds of people lining up. Some said they were protesting, although there was little on the surface to distinguish them from ordinary voters.
Leonid Volkov, an exiled Navalny aide who was attacked with a hammer in Vilnius last week, estimated that hundreds of thousands of people came to the polls in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and other cities to cast their votes.
Reuters could not independently verify this estimate.
At noon, hundreds of Russians were waiting in line at polling stations at Russian diplomatic missions from Australia and Japan to Armenia, Kazakhstan and Georgia.
In Berlin, Navalny’s widow Yulia appeared at the Russian embassy to join protests there, along with Navalny’s spokesman Kira Yarmish. Other Russians present applauded and chanted her name.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
