The widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has called on voters in the country's presidential election to turn out en masse at 12 noon on March 17 and vote against Vladimir Putin or damage their ballot. The protest action, known as 'Noon against Putin', aims to honor Navalny's last wishes, while highlighting the high number of voters who are against Russia's war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expects record turnout in the upcoming March 15-17 elections. And now Russia's strongman, who is seeking a fifth term in a tightly controlled vote, could make his wish come true.
But if voters turn out in large numbers at noon on March 17, Putin might feel he should have been careful what he asked for.
The 'Noon Against Putin' protest action was called by the late Alexei Navalny two weeks before his death in an Arctic prison, and is now being continued by his widow, Yulia Navalnaya.
Protest promoters want Russians to wait until noon on March 17 to go to their polling station. They don't care which candidate they vote for, as long as it's not Putin and they turn up right at noon.
“The choice is yours. You can vote for any candidate except Putin,” Navalnaya said in a YouTube video.
“You can ruin the ballot, you can write 'Navalny' in big letters. And even if you don't see the voting point at all, you can just come and stand at the voting center, and then turn around and go home.” , he added.
Russia's presidential election is expected to give Putin another six-year term, keeping him in the Kremlin at least until 2030. The vote is taking place without any major challengers, and international observers have already expressed concern about his Transparency and accountability.
Navalnaya sees the election protest as a gesture of support for the Russian opposition and a powerful way for citizens to show they are against Russia's war against Ukraine.
In fact, protest action may be the only thing that motivates anti-Putin Russians to turn out that day and vote.
“How many people will turn out is the only interesting figure in this election,” said Matthew Wyman, a specialist in Russian politics at Keele University in the United Kingdom.
'Navalny's political legacy'
“We have to sabotage (the election),” said Maxim Reznik, another known opponent, when interviewed by the independent Russian news website Meduza. Reznik, an exile who came up with the idea of the protest, first suggested the action during the debate 'What to do about the presidential election?' broadcast in January 2024 on the opposition channel Dozhd.
Since then, most of Russia's leading opposition figures have shown their support for the “Noon Against Putin” initiative, starting with Navalny's anti-corruption foundation, which rarely misses an opportunity to promote it.
The protest is brilliant because they are doing exactly what the regime wants them to do: go vote
'Novaya Gazeta', the independent Russian newspaper, even called the protest action “Navalny's will.” “It's very appropriate to link it to Navalny because that's the kind of thing he would have done,” Wyman notes.
“It's in the spirit of a lot of things Navalny was doing and asking people to do: it's not difficult, and with small steps you can expect to make big changes,” added Jenny Mathers, a Russia specialist at Aberystwyth University in Wales.
'Noon against Putin' fits perfectly with this strategy. Going to the polling station at a specific time does not require any particular effort on the part of voters and does not put them at risk either.
“What they are doing is trying to find ways to show resistance without risk of being imprisoned. The protest is brilliant because they are doing exactly what the regime wants them to do: go vote,” Wyman said, adding that the police It would be difficult to justify detaining voters for fulfilling their civic duty.
Mathers suggests it's important to start with small steps.
“The idea is to rebuild civil society and a credible opposition force that has been hit hard lately,” he said. “After small steps, maybe a bigger one will come? I see it as one piece of a long-term campaign,” Mathers added.
Russians who oppose the war
These types of protest actions illustrate “the creativity of the actions undertaken by the opposition in Russia,” according to Wyman, adding that “the space for protest has become increasingly smaller.”
'Noon against Putin' is just one of a long list of initiatives along similar lines. In the past, protesters have held up blank sheets of paper to symbolize censorship of any criticism of Russia's war against Ukraine, and activists have added QR codes to billboards so citizens can access websites critical of Putin. .
“These are the kinds of practices you see in regimes that become increasingly oppressive,” Mathers argued.
“It's like what China does, when they use Winnie the Pooh,” says Mathers, referring to China's ban on the Winnie the Pooh movie after opponents used memes to mock leader Xi Pingping by comparing him to the honey-loving movie bear.
Some wonder if the protest action will have any real impact.
“Obviously it's not going to change the outcome of the election,” Mathers admitted. However, Wyman believes he will give a “better picture” of the strength of opposition to the war against Ukraine.
The huge crowds that gathered for Navalny's funeral on March 1 have already given some insight into the feeling of dissent in Russia. At least 27,000 people came to say goodbye to Navalny at the Borisovsky cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow, according to a count by the Russian independent media Mediazona.
But Stephen Hall, a Russia specialist at the University of Bath, predicts that voter turnout will be much higher than at Navalny's funeral, noting that it was mainly Muscovites who attended, and that police had warned people to stay away.
“Here the risk of arrest is low and it is (happening) all over Russia. This is a low-risk way to show that you are against the regime and the war,” he added.
Stealing media attention from Putin
Hall believes that one of the main challenges of 'Midday Against Putin' will be mobilizing people outside of Moscow or St. Petersburg.
“Putin has always enjoyed popular support on the outskirts of major urban centers. If long queues form in front of polling stations across Russia at noon on Sunday, you may start to worry about the real level of his popularity,” he explained. .
'Noon Against Putin' also aims to steal media attention from the Kremlin.
“The regime wants this election to be uncontroversial. Therefore, the more disruption there is, such as the large number of people going to the polling stations at noon, the bigger the problem would be for Putin,” Mathers added.
“Putin desperately wants every global headline after the election to say he got 85%,” Reznik said. “But now, rest assured, you will see it! All the headlines will not be about Putin's performance, but about what happened at noon,” he added.
“It's about creating a counter-narrative,” according to Matthew Wyman.
This is partly so that Russians opposed to the regime don't feel alone, but it is also “a way of telling the world that we are not all Putin, and that there is a movement to support in Russia,” Mathers explained.
But for that to happen, voters will have to flock to the polling stations at noon on Sunday.
This article has been translated from its English version
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