Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, called on Russians on Wednesday, March 6, to organize a protest against President Vladimir Putin on March 17, election day, forming long lines in front of polling stations.
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“Noon against Putin”. “You have to go to schools on the same day and at the same time, on March 17 at noon,” said this Wednesday, March 6, the widow of the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalyana in a message published on social networks.
Navalnaya assured that the magnitude of support for her late husband is proof that his cause is still alive and called for a massive protest on election day against President Vladimir Putin.
In a video, Yulia Navalnaya said she had gained hope from the large crowds who turned out last week for the funeral of her husband, who died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16. Since her burial, her supporters have filled her grave with flowers.
“Looking at you, I am convinced that not everything is in vain and this thought gives me strength,” she said.
“Now everyone knows that there are actually many of us who love and support Alexei, that we share his ideas and, as long as we have each other, this is not over.”
Navalny, in one of his last public messages, had urged people to protest Putin by voting en masse at noon local time in the March 17 presidential election, forming large crowds and overwhelming polling stations.
Navalnaya reiterated her husband's call.
“This is a very simple and safe action, it cannot be prohibited and it will help millions of people to see like-minded people and realize that we are not alone,” he said. “We are surrounded by people who are also against war, corruption and anarchy.”
There is a lot at stake for both the opposition and the Kremlin.
If the “Noon Against Putin” action fails, it will be a serious blow to Navalnaya's hopes of taking over her husband's role.despite the fact that he resides outside Russia, and demonstrate that opposition to the Kremlin is still alive.
But if people heed the call, it could turn into a large protest across Russia's 11 time zones and present a dilemma for authorities, since police would have no obvious legal reasons to disperse people lining up to vote.
Putin, in power since the last day of 1999 either as president or prime minister, is assured of winning six more years in power. Two potential rivals who spoke out against the war in Ukraine were disqualified from the election on technical grounds, and none of the three remaining candidates are critical of Putin.
The Kremlin says it will win because it has genuine support across the country, with opinion ratings in opinion polls around 80%.
Two years after the war, Putin's main opponents are dead, in prison or out of the country. Navalnaya called the elections “a complete fiction and a fraud.”
“What to do now? The choice is yours. You can vote for any candidate except Putin,” he said. “You can ruin the ballot, you can write 'Navalny' in big letters. And even if you don't see the point in voting, you can just come and stand at the polling station, and then turn around and go home.”
Having survived a poisoning attempt in 2020, Navalny, who was 47 when he died, was serving sentences of more than 30 years for fraud, extremism and other charges that he said were trumped up to silence him.
The Kremlin has portrayed Navalny and his supporters as lawbreakers and tools of the West, acting to destabilize Russia.
With Reuters
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