(Warsaw) Yulia Navalnaïa on Wednesday called on Russians to express their opposition to Vladimir Putin on March 17, the third and last day of the presidential election which should see the current master of the Kremlin be re-elected in the absence of real candidates from opposition.
“You can vote for any candidate except Putin, you can “spoil” your ballot, you can write “Navalny” in big letters,” urged the exiled widow of opponent Alexeï Navalny , whose funeral last week in Moscow was attended by several thousand people.
“We must go to the polling station on the same day and at the same time, March 17 at noon,” she asked in a video, calling the upcoming vote a “masquerade.”
Yulia Navalnaïa, like her two children and some of her husband’s allies and collaborators, lives abroad to escape the repression of those in power.
“We can come and see and see that we are numerous and strong” against “war, corruption and lawlessness”, she again argued in front of the camera, her gaze straight and determined.
Her husband, Alexeï Navalny, launched this idea at the beginning of February in one of his last speeches before his death, believing from his prison that “this could be a powerful demonstration of the state of mind of the country”.
According to Yulia Navalnaïa, who promised to continue her husband’s fight, “it is a very simple and safe action. It cannot be banned” by the authorities, she said.
Because classic demonstrations against power are severely repressed in Russia.
” Hope ”
“Next to you, there are probably many people who are against Putin and against the war. And if we come at the same time, our voice against Putin will resonate much louder,” she said.
Yulia Navalnaïa castigated “the cult of the past, of war, of missiles and vile murders” defended, according to her, by the Kremlin, in the face of “love, support and faith in the future” that she intends to relay.
Imprisoned in early 2021, Alexeï Navalny, a trained lawyer, tirelessly denounced the repression and corruption of Russian elites and criticized, from his cell, the Kremlin’s assault on Ukraine.
For its part, the Kremlin assures that Russians are largely “united” behind Vladimir Putin who must be re-elected without opposition during the vote scheduled for March 15 to 17.
If he wins, the current Russian president will remain in power at least until 2030, three decades after his arrival in the Kremlin to replace Boris Yeltsin, then weakened by illness.
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov assured that the authorities will organize in a few days “the type of elections that our people want”.
“We will no longer tolerate criticism of our democracy,” he said.
Yulia Navalnaïa also thanked on Wednesday the thousands of sympathizers who paid tribute to her husband last Friday, during the funeral organized in the south-east of Moscow, then during the weekend, marching in numbers in front of his grave, buried under the flowers.
On the day of his funeral, the Kremlin had nevertheless warned against any “unauthorized” demonstration, which did not prevent the crowd from chanting “No to war!” » or even “We will not forgive!” “.
“These images are imbued not only with sorrow and sadness, but also with hope,” said Mr.me Navalnaïa, saluting the “most courageous, most honest” people in our country.
“There are many of us and as long as we are together, nothing is finished,” she said.