Protest “Lunch against Putin” – Elections in Russia: Protest in front of the consulate in Geneva – News

  • On the last day of the presidential election in Russia, government critics also took part in a protest against Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin in Geneva.
  • Almost 400 people joined the queue in front of the Russian Consulate General on Sunday afternoon.
  • Some carried posters with statements against President Putin and the war in Ukraine.

In Geneva, around 2,000 Russians from French-speaking Switzerland are expected to vote at the consulate. Most of the people present at midday followed the call of the widow of dead opposition figure Alexei Navalny to go to the polls at the same time at midday.

Legend:

The queue, which included many young Russians, stretched across the sidewalk to the Russian Consulate.

KEYSTONE / Martial Trezzini

At the “Lunch Against Putin” protest, voters should give their vote to every candidate except Putin. Several people counted the voters in line on site. They want to verify the figures provided by the Kremlin.

Moscow reports high voter turnout – protests across the country

In Russia, following the opposition’s call, opponents of Putin gathered at many polling stations in Russia around lunchtime to show that they do not want to see the Kremlin leader in office for another six years. The many photos and videos with a total of thousands of people show a different picture than the one painted by the state media of happy voters.

Appearance of opposition politician Nadezhdin


Open the box
Close the box

The opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin, who was excluded from the presidential election, took part in the peaceful protest “Lunch against Putin” in the Russian capital Moscow.

At the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, where polling stations are set up, he was greeted with great applause by students, as a video he published on Telegram shows.

“I think you will still have the chance to vote for me,” he told those gathered. He announced that he would publish his own post-election surveys after the polling stations closed. Their results differed greatly from what the authorities expected, said Nadezhdin.

No admission to vote

As a declared opponent of the war, Nadezhdin caused a stir in January when thousands of Russians lined up to sign for him.

According to his own information, the 60-year-old Nadezhdin was able to collect twice the required 100,000 signatures from supporters. Nevertheless, the Kremlin-controlled election commission excluded the liberal from the election.

The electoral commission stated that there were allegedly too many incorrect signatures in random samples. Russian courts rejected Nadezhdin’s appeal against his exclusion from the election.

The electoral commission in Moscow has announced that turnout is now higher than in the last election in 2018. The previous figure of 67.54 percent had been exceeded as of 11:50 a.m. CET, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.

According to civil rights activists, dozens of people were arrested during protests critical of the Kremlin on the last day of the presidential election. In total, the Ovd-Info organization counted more than 70 arrests across the country by Sunday afternoon – around 30 of them in the city of Kazan. People in Moscow and St. Petersburg were also affected.

Criticism of online voting

The election for President Vladimir Putin’s fifth term in office has been scheduled for three days for the first time. This should also give more voters the chance to cast their votes. In addition, millions of people voted online – reportedly partly due to pressure from the authorities. According to the Moscow Election Commission, 7.74 million people used online voting by 11 a.m. CET, which corresponds to a voter turnout of almost seven percent.

Elections in Russia – protests in Europe

Independent observers criticize the fact that many citizens were pushed to the polls by their state employers. Not only is that illegal, the voters’ reported request to send photos of their ballot papers to superiors is also considered a violation of Russian electoral law.

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