Yulia* voted in Russia on Sunday. At noon, as opponent Alexeï Navalny requested before dying in prison last month.
“A simple and relatively safe way to protest against the system,” she wrote to me on a secure social network.
This was before she entered the voting booth.
On her ballot, next to the names of the four candidates in the running, Youlia* wrote four words in large red letters. Big words. “Murderers. Thieves. Assholes. Bastards. ” In Russian.
She made sure to choose the last voting booth and fold the piece of paper carefully before slipping it into the ballot box. She sent me the photo of her gesture of defiance.
PHOTO PROVIDED
A gesture of defiance among thousands of others during the Russian elections. Despite visible opposition, Vladimir Putin declared that he had won the election with 87% of the vote on Sunday in Russia.
The 33-year-old Muscovite knew she was taking a risk. On social networks, we saw images of armed Russian police officers entering voting booths without warning. Authorities also report that at least 85 people were arrested for “sabotage” ballots or ballot boxes. You will therefore understand why I hide the identity of my interlocutor.
Youlia* nevertheless wanted to vote, as she always has since she became an adult, and even though she had no doubt that – whatever happened – Vladimir Putin was going to be returned to power for a fifth six-year term. “I will always vote because I have too much respect for the men and especially the women who obtained the right to vote for us in the past,” says this convinced, but repeatedly disappointed, Democrat.
There were thousands in Russia and in Russian embassies abroad to imitate his gesture. To follow the slogan launched by Vladimir Putin’s main political rival, a slogan which has transformed into a posthumous tribute. Or even destroy their ballot. Despite the danger.
True to form, the Kremlin has taken advantage of this popular revolt and turned it to its advantage. “Russian media used images of the long lines to show the high turnout in the election. They diverted them from their original meaning,” notes Aurélie Campana, professor of political science at Laval University and expert on political movements in Russia.
The regime no longer hides from fudging the figures.
Aurélie Campana, professor of political science at Laval University
Unsurprisingly, the Kremlin reported turnout as high as 75% and support for Vladimir Putin exceeding 87% – a Soviet score! Inflation of more than 10 support points since the previous presidential election in 2018 and 20 since a similar vote in 2012.
In his victory speech, the Russian president boasted about the “consolidation” of the Russian people behind him, a guarantee of the invincibility of the country he claims to defend by attacking neighboring Ukraine.
Youlia*, for her part, especially notes that the tone has changed since the great spectacle of the elections ended. “Before the election, the atmosphere was like a honeymoon in the media and government comments. Now that the vote has taken place, we hear of a new wave of conscription [pour la guerre en Ukraine]tax increases and new bans on the internet,” notes the woman who has little hope of political changes in the short or medium term in her country.
For the moment, it is under the sign of the conservation of power that the Kremlin operates. Youlia* wants to leave a little more every day. As a million Russians have done since the start of all-out war in February 2022.
Even if this election is marked by continuity, it should still worry us. Because the “consolidation” of power that Vladimir Putin speaks of goes well beyond Russia’s borders.
Supported by a horde of authoritarian leaders who hastened to congratulate him for the extension of his reign – with the Chinese president in the lead – Vladimir Putin is taking advantage of all the platforms offered to him to continue to present himself as the defender of “ traditional values” – anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ+ – against a West that he judges to be in full decadence.
To brandish the threat of a third world war or a nuclear confrontation, knowing that this is the best way to sow discord in Europe as in the United States where the debate on the preferred military approach is already divisive in the run-up to important elections.
If they gain ground at the polls, far-right, radical-right and far-left movements – often openly pro-Putin – could then work to change democratic systems from within, warns Aurélie Campana .
Nothing reassuring. Nor for our democracies. Nor for Youlia*.
*Fictitious first name