Russian presidential election
Navalnaya against Putin in Berlin
Yulia Navalnaya, Alexei Navalny’s widow, stands in a queue in front of the Russian Embassy to cast her vote in the presidential election. photo
© Carsten Koall/dpa
Voters and demonstrators gather in front of the embassy in Berlin for the Russian presidential election. Also there: Julia Navalnaya, the widow of the Kremlin critic. Many sympathize with her.
In line to the polling station at the Russian Embassy in In Berlin, some shout “thank you” and others “stupid” as Julia Navalnaya walks through. Why did the widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny come to the German capital to take part in the presidential election? Is she afraid of going into the embassy? Her team made no comment on this on Sunday. Navalnaya’s lips are sealed.
Protesters and long lines of voters
According to the police, around 2,000 voters and 500 to 800 demonstrators gathered at the Russian embassy in Berlin Unter den Linden. Numerous people wave flags in white-blue-white, which are supposed to be the new colors of a free Russia, as participants say. Voters line up in a long line to cast a ballot on the last day of the three-day Russian presidential election. The two groups can only be clearly separated visually – many in the queue seem to agree with the demonstrators.
Criticism of the election in Russia
A figure of Russian President Vladimir Putin is erected in the square in front of the embassy, sitting in a tub in Ukrainian national colors and washing himself with blood. As a protest, someone set up shredders for supposed ballot papers – explained with the words “Try Russian democracy.”
The presidential election is overshadowed by allegations of fraud and manipulation. One month after the death of Alexei Navalny and more than two years after the start of Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine, Kremlin leader Putin wants to secure his fifth term in office. He has already been confirmed as the winner in advance and is likely to achieve a record result.
Many in the voter queue sympathize with the demonstrators
Many people in the voter queue also have sympathy for the cries of “Victory for Ukraine! Freedom for Russia!”, “Nawalny is a hero of Russia” and “Putin is illegitimate”. Many people came to the “Lunch Against Putin” campaign – to cast invalid ballot papers because, as some say, there is no opposition candidate.
Ekaterina Olenina, for example. The 25-year-old, who moved to Germany from Russia around three and a half years ago, tells the German Press Agency: “It’s hard not to agree with the speakers.” She doesn’t want to vote for Putin. “The only thing we can arm ourselves with here is a ballpoint pen with which we can write on a ballot paper that probably no one will read.”
Rather few Putin supporters
The number of people who want to vote for Putin seems to be rather small. As Navalnaya walks through the line with her spokeswoman Kira Yarmysch, most people shout words of approval to her and make room for her, and a chant briefly rings out over hundreds of meters with the words “No to war” – all in Russian. Some people in the voter queue, on the other hand, appear confidently pro-Putin, and a Soviet anthem is heard from a car. Talk to the press? Probably not with the western one.