“Lunch against Putin” campaign: Navalny team: Thousands protest against election
“Lunch against Putin” campaign
Navalny team: Thousands protest against election
March 17, 2024, 11:30 a.m
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Russian citizens have until tonight to elect a president, but they have no real choice. The team led by the late Putin opponent Alexei Navalny initiated a nationwide protest despite warnings from the authorities – and spoke of a high influx.
Thousands of people took part in the silent protest against the re-election of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow and St. Petersburg on the last day of the presidential election in Russia. Those close to the opposition activist Alexei Navalny, who died in the prison camp, reported that long queues formed at polling stations at 12 noon local time (10 a.m. CET) during the “Lunch against Putin” campaign organized by the Kremlin opponent’s team in cities with over a million inhabitants. Russian voters responded en masse to the call to show their rejection of Putin by attending lunchtime.
There were also numerous participants in the actions in many other Russian cities. There were protests in Russia’s far east in Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Irkutsk and other Siberian cities, the Navalny team said in a livestream YouTube showed. The opposition figure Leonid Volkov, a close confidante of Navalny in exile in the Baltics, spoke of an “explosion” of resistance to a fifth term in office for Putin.
A queue had also formed in front of polling station 31 in Moscow, as an eyewitness on site reported. The constituency is small, but more than 50 people gathered there at lunchtime. The opposition suggested that voters invalidate the ballot papers by ticking several of the four candidates.
In Berlin there was a long queue at the Russian Embassy on Sunday. However, it was the only day for Russians living here to take part in the election.
Voters can use random generator
There was also the option of using a random generator on the cell phone invented by Navalny that output a candidate name. Navalny’s team complained about mass fraud in the vote. According to the Navalny team, the action against Putin should also show that, according to many independent observers, the voter turnout information is manipulated.
The authorities in Russia had sometimes warned against such protests and threatened people with charges of extremism. However, the situation remained peaceful. Initially nothing was known about any arrests. In some cases, voters published ballot papers on social networks with the word murderer next to Putin’s name. Some people simply wrote Navalny’s name on the ballot paper. An older man said, referring to the opposition leader who died in February: “My president is no longer among the living.” Navalny is buried in Moscow.
