Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has urged Russians to protest against President Vladimir Putin’s election by forming long queues at polling stations at midday on election day. Putin is expected to win a fifth term as Russia’s president in the elections which will be held 15 to 17 March.
“”We need to use the election day to show that we exist and there are many of us,” Yulia, who had earlier vowed to continue her husband’s work, said in a video message Thursday. The proposed protest quickly became known as “Midday Against Putin.”
The original idea of a midday gathering at polling stations was aired by Navalny two weeks before his death in an Arctic prison camp February 16..In a message posted by his lawyers on X, formerly Twitter, Navalny said an election day protest could become a real “all-Russian protest action… available to everyone, everywhere. Millions will be able to take part in it. And tens of millions will witness it.”
Turning up at polling stations at midday was a “very simple and safe action” that could not be barred by the authorities, said Yulia in her video address. People could then vote for any candidate except Putin, or spoil their ballot or write “Navalny” in big letters, she said.
Yulia, who addressed the European Parliament and held talks with US President Joe Biden after her husband’s death – which she blamed on Putin- said she was overwhelmed by the large crowds that gathered for her husband’s funeral in Moscow last week, and how Navalny’s grave at the Borisovskoye Cemetery has been submerged by flowers since then.
“I can’t tell you how much that has meant to me,” she said, adding: “Alexei dreamed of the beautiful Russia of the future – and that is you.”
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