Long queues formed in front of polling stations in some cities on Sunday followingnoon. Supporters of the dead opposition activist Alexei Navalny had called for people to vote at 12 p.m. and thus send a harmless sign of protest. The civil rights portal OVD-Info counted at least 74 arrests.
74 arrests
Reuters reporters saw a slight increase in influx, including many younger people, at polling stations in Moscow and Yekaterinburg on Sunday. Among the several hundred people waiting, some said they had followed the call to protest. The authorities had warned once morest protests and threatened to take tough action. Hundreds of Russian citizens also lined up to vote at diplomatic missions abroad in Kazakhstan and Georgia, for example.
The opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin, who was excluded from the presidential election, also took part in the peaceful protest “Lunch once morest Putin”. At the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, where there is a polling station, he was greeted with great applause by students, according to a video he posted on Telegram on Sunday. “I think you’ll still have a chance to vote for me,” he told those gathered. He announced that he would publish his own post-election surveys following the polls closed. Their results were very different from what the authorities expected, he said.
- HONEY: Last day of voting in Russia
Pressure on voters?
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, joined the queue in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin. People clapped and Navalnaya was presented with flowers. She had called for a protest on the last day of the election, during which opponents of President Vladimir Putin would flock to the polling stations.
According to authorities, there were several protests and attempted disruptions on the first two days of voting on Friday and Saturday. In 20 cases, people poured liquids into ballot boxes to make the ballot papers unusable, the election commission said. There were also attempts at arson.
Navalny’s team complained regarding mass fraud in the vote. According to the Navalny team, the action once morest Putin should also show that, according to many independent observers, the voter turnout information is manipulated.
Image gallery: Worldwide protests during the Russia election
(Photo: APA/AFP/Tobias Schwarz) Bild 1/54
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The authorities in Russia had sometimes warned once morest such protests and threatened people with charges of extremism. On social media, voters posted ballot papers 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.
Other Putin opponents, such as Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who lives in exile in Great Britain, also called on people not to be afraid and to take part in the action.
Six more years in office
Putin wants to be confirmed in office for another six years with the vote. The election is considered neither free nor fair. Approval ratings of more than 80 percent for Putin are considered realistic. Still, authorities are under pressure to report the best possible results in his favor. On Sunday, the authorities reported the interim voter turnout at more than 60 percent. The last polling stations close this evening at 7 p.m. (CET) in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Official forecasts are expected immediately followingwards.
The three candidates nominated by the parliamentary opposition loyal to Putin are considered pure counting candidates. Putin’s political opponents were barred from running for office or died suddenly, like Navalny.
