Yulia Navalnaya claimed she wrote the identify of her ‘murdered’ husband on her poll whereas voting within the Russian presidential in election in Berlin this afternoon.
The widow of Vladimir Putin‘s opposition chief Alexei Navalny voted within the German capital as 1000’s heeded her name to stage ‘midday in opposition to Putin’ and protest at embassies world wide.
Talking to reporters after her vote she stated: ‘Clearly I wrote Navalny’s identify. It may’t be {that a} month earlier than a presidential marketing campaign, a month earlier than an election, Putin’s important opponent, who was already in jail, was killed’.
Sending a message to the Russian individuals, the activist informed her supporters: ‘Simply be courageous, someday quickly we are going to win.’
Requested whether or not she had a message for Putin, Navalnaya replied: ‘Please cease asking for messages from me or from any person for Mr. Putin. There may very well be no negotiations and nothing with Mr. Putin, as a result of he is a killer, he is a gangster.’
Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, addresses the media after casting her poll within the Russian presidential elections on the Russian embassy in Berlin
Navalnaya walks down the steps after casting her poll within the Russian presidential elections contained in the Russian embassy in Berlin, Germany
Navalnaya seen together with her supporters in Berlin on the ultimate day of the presidential election in Russia
Her husband died final month whereas in an Arctic penal colony after he was barred from standing on this election, in addition to the vote that occurred six years in the past.
Supporters chanted ‘Yulia, we’re with you’ as she entered the embassy to solid her poll this afternoon and he or she thanked her fellow Russians for queuing so lengthy.
Protesters displayed a determine of Putin bathing in a shower of blood with the Ukraine flag on the aspect, alongside shredded ballots in poll packing containers.
The widow’s remarks got here simply hours earlier than Putin secured the election with 87.8 per cent of the vote, based on exit polls.
The despot is claimed to be heading for a landslide victory, based on a ballot by the Russian Public Opinion Analysis centre.
The UK, US and Ukraine are amongst a rating of nations to query the projected outcome.
Overseas Secretary, Lord David Cameron wrote on X tonight: ‘The polls have closed in Russia, following the unlawful holding of elections on Ukrainian territory, an absence of selection for voters and no unbiased OSCE monitoring.
‘This isn’t what free and honest elections appear to be.’
Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky has accused the Russian tyrant, 71, of ‘doing the whole lot to rule eternally’.
A White Home nationwide safety spokesperson stated ‘the elections are clearly not free nor honest given how Mr Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from working in opposition to him’.
An in depth-up of a stylised ‘dying head’ poster of Russian president Vladimir Putin on the facade of the Museum of Medical Historical past in entrance of the Russian embassy in Riga, Latvia
A Russian pro-democracy activist holds a flag studying ‘Putin just isn’t Russia’ outdoors a polling station within the Russian faculty in Belgrade, Serbia
The vote, which holds little suspense, occurred in opposition to the backdrop of the harshest crackdown on political opposition and freedom of speech in Russia since Soviet instances.
Solely three token candidates – and nobody who opposes his struggle in Ukraine – have been allowed to run in opposition to him as he sought a fifth time period.
Voting occurred over three days at polling stations throughout the huge nation’s 11 time zones, in illegally annexed areas of Ukraine and on-line.
1000’s throughout the nation who opposed the veteran Kremlin chief went to their native polling station at noon to both spoil their poll paper in protest or to vote for one of many three candidates standing in opposition to Putin.
Others vowed to scrawl the identify of late opposition chief Alexei Navalny, who died final month in an Arctic jail, on their poll paper.
Navalny had endorsed the ‘Midday in opposition to Putin’ plan in a message on social media facilitated by his attorneys earlier than he died. The unbiased Novaya Gazeta newspaper referred to as the deliberate motion ‘Navalny’s political testomony’.
His allies broadcast movies on YouTube of traces of individuals queuing up at completely different polling stations throughout Russia at noon who they stated have been there to peacefully protest.
Crowds of supporters wait outdoors the Russian embassy in Berlin as Navalnaya casts her vote
Alexei Navalny (pictured along with his spouse in 2013) died final month whereas in an Arctic penal colony after he was barred from standing on this election
‘There may be little or no hope but when you are able to do one thing (like this) it’s best to do it. There may be nothing left of democracy,’ one younger lady, who didn’t give her identify and whose face was blurred out by Navalny’s group, stated at one polling station.
One other younger lady at a unique polling station, whose id had been disguised in the identical approach, stated she had voted for the ‘least doubtful’ of the three candidates working in opposition to Putin.
A male scholar voting in Moscow informed Navalny’s channel that individuals like him who disagreed with the present system wanted to go on dwelling their lives regardless.
‘Historical past has proven that adjustments happen on the most surprising of instances,’ he stated.
Navalny had endorsed the ‘Midday in opposition to Putin’ plan in a message on social media facilitated by his attorneys earlier than he died. The unbiased Novaya Gazeta newspaper referred to as the deliberate motion ‘Navalny’s political testomony’.
The protesters, nevertheless, solely characterize a small fraction of Russia’s 114 million voters resulting in Putin to tighten his grip on energy within the election that’s sure to ship him an enormous victory.
The Kremlin casts Navalny’s political allies – most of whom are based mostly outdoors Russia – as harmful extremists out to destabilise the nation on behalf of the West.
Regardless of tight controls, a number of dozen circumstances of vandalism at polling stations have been reported throughout the voting interval.
A pool of purple colored liquid to symbolise blood seen subsequent to Russians in Latvia ready to vote on the embassy in Riga
Navalnaya (pictured), the widow of useless opposition chief Alexei Navalny , referred to as for protests within the run as much as the election, and stated Russian residents ought to present up in droves on the identical time to overwhelm polling stations
Earlier demonstrations noticed 60 individuals arrested, together with in Moscow and St. Petersburg, after they tried to start out fires or set off explosives at polling stations whereas others have been detained for throwing inexperienced antiseptic or ink into poll packing containers.
Others gathered at Navalny’s grave in a Moscow cemetery with spoiled ballots papers scrawled along with his identify have been positioned on prime of a pile of flowers.
‘We stay in a rustic the place we are going to go to jail if we converse our thoughts. So once I come to moments like this and see lots of people, I realise that we’re not alone,’ stated 33-year-old Regina.
Whereas polls closed Sunday evening in Russia, voting continued at some embassies world wide. Within the UK, lengthy queues of individuals lined up outdoors the Russian Embassy in London to solid their votes.
In Paris, 1000’s of individuals queued outdoors the embassy, some holding anti-Kremlin placards. Many, together with opposition determine Gennady Gudkov – an in depth buddy of Navalny – stated that they had not anticipated such a turnout.
‘I’ve lived in Paris for a very long time,’ stated Sergei Guriev, provost at Sciences Po, one in every of France’s most prestigious universities. ‘I’ve by no means seen such traces.’
He pointed to the lengthy traces within the French capital and stated that the vote could be rigged. ‘At the moment he is committing his newest crime,’ Guriev stated.
Already, voters have protested the rigged election, with many seen pouring dye and paint into poll packing containers
Many Russians have spoiled their ballots already
‘I’ll use my poll as a leaflet,’ stated Tatyana Leontyeva, 43, as she waited for her flip to vote outdoors Russia’s Paris embassy. ‘I feel I’ll write Navalny on it, I’ll say that Putin is illegitimate.’
Within the US lots of of individuals took half within the ‘Midday Towards Putin’ protest on the Russian embassy in Washington.
Yulia Traub, 38, got here to vote in opposition to Putin though she stated she knew the end result. ‘If you happen to can not do or say something you need to a minimum of lie down and lay within the path through which you need to transfer.’
Protests have been additionally seen going down in Milan and Belgrade. Ivan Zhdanov, the top of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis, stated that the opposition’s name to protest had been profitable.
‘The motion has proven that there is one other Russia, there are individuals who stand in opposition to Putin.’
Russia’s international ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova questioned if all these voting at international embassies have been opponents of Putin and accused Western media of disseminating propaganda in regards to the occasions.
‘Russian residents didn’t come to the rallies and performances that unfriendly regimes and their paid info companies are attempting to current,’ Zakharova stated.
‘They got here to solid their vote. Who they voted for and the way they voted is their free selection. However the truth that they rejected the appeals of the marginalised is apparent to everybody.’