(Moscow) Russians vote on Sunday on the last day of a vote intended to celebrate the triumph of Vladimir Putin, despite the repression, the death of opponent Alexeï Navalny and the assault on Ukraine which constitute the backdrop of the election.
Critics of the Russian president, who has been in charge of the country for 24 years, wanted to show themselves by going to vote at the same time, at noon on Sunday.
In Moscow, in places, large crowds were visible, AFP journalists noted.
“I came to show that there are many of us, that we exist, that we are not a marginal minority,” Artiom Minassian, a 19-year-old student, told AFP.
PHOTO MIKHAIL METZEL, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Russian President Vladimir Putin will most likely be re-elected on Sunday for a new six-year term at the head of the country.
In the Moscow district of Marino, in front of the office where Alexei Navalny was voting, a few dozen voters responded to the call.
“I was able to meet a few people, talk to them, and I felt that they thought the same thing as me. I am not alone,” says Olga, 52, before leaving with her son to pay her respects at the grave of the opponent, buried in the neighborhood.
In the cemetery, dozens of people marched, placing fresh flowers on the grave as well as bulletins on which Navalny’s name was added.
PHOTO NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A ballot paper to which Alexeï Navalny’s name was added was placed at his grave in Moscow.
One word recalls a quote that the opponent appreciated: “To triumph, evil only needs the inaction of good people.”
Overall, the mobilization of the opposition took place calmly, but the NGO OVD-Info, specializing in monitoring repression, reported at least 74 arrests in Russia for various forms of election protests.
Navalnaya in Berlin
In front of Russian embassies around the world, queues formed at the appointed time. The crowds were there particularly in Paris and Berlin, while tens of thousands of Russians have gone into exile due to repression and military mobilization since the start of the Russian assault against Ukraine.
Yulia Navalnaïa, the wife of the deceased who launched the call to vote at midday, was in line at the start of the afternoon in the German capital. Around her, some brandished signs: “No Putin, No War”, “Russia without Putin” or even “Putin is a killer”.
PHOTO ANNEGRET HILSE, REUTERS
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, took part in a protest against the re-election of outgoing President Vladimir Putin in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin, Germany, on March 17.
Leonid Volkov, a former close collaborator of Navalny, thanked those who came: “The world saw you. Russia is not Putin, Russia is you,” he wrote on X.
These protests will not, however, affect the very predictable outcome of the vote. Initial estimates and the results of a survey by a state institute, Vtsiom, should be known shortly after the last polling stations close at 2 p.m. (Eastern time) in the Kaliningrad enclave.
President Putin, aged 71, faces three hand-picked and insignificant candidates. The opposition has been decimated by years of repression that accelerated further with the conflict in Ukraine and culminated in the mysterious death of Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison in February.
On the military level, this election week was marked by deadly strikes and attempted armed incursions from Ukraine into Russian territory, responses to the daily bombings and assaults by Kremlin forces in its neighbor for more than two years.
On Sunday morning, a 16-year-old girl was killed in an air attack on the town of Belgorod, close to the border and very often targeted. In the afternoon another person died and 11 others injured in the same region.
A drone strike blamed on Ukraine also caused a fire at a refinery in southern Russia.
Despite these attacks, a prolonged deadly conflict and increasingly restricted freedoms, the master of the Kremlin can count on very real popularity and wants to make the presidential election a demonstration of the country’s unity.
Putin advocates unity
“We must confirm our unity,” he insisted on Thursday, the country being, in his mind, the target of a war hatched by the West.
A vision shared by many of his compatriots. “The actions that the West inflicts on us only further unite the Russian people,” swears to AFP Lyubov Piankova, a 70-year-old retiree from Saint Petersburg, the head of state’s hometown.
And by mid-afternoon in Moscow, turnout stood at 70.81%, a record according to official figures.
With regard to Ukraine, while the conflict has probably cost the lives of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, the Kremlin strives to triumphantly present recent conquests, although limited in scale.
All week, the Russian army also had to repel attempted armed incursions from Ukraine, assaults claimed by anti-Putin units claiming to be composed of Russians and aiming to disrupt the vote.
A group, the “Siberian Battalion” claimed on Sunday morning to have entered the Russian hamlet of Gorkovsky.
Moscow, for its part, continues its bombing of Ukraine. A strike killed 21 people in Odessa on Friday.
(Re)read “Russia according to Vladimir Putin“