 "A person holds a placard as people attend a protest against the re-election of incumbent President Vladimir Putin on the final day of the presidential election in Russia, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, opposite the Russian Embassy, in London, Britain. Reuters")
There wasn’t much doubt over who would win the Russian presidential elections, and early Monday Vladimir Putin basked in his victory, with results showing that he had acquired over 87 per cent of the votes. In fact, the Russian strongman hailed the results as an indication of “trust” and “hope” in him. The result means Putin will rule Russia until at least 2030, when he will be 77.
While the results weren’t surprising to anyone, as there was no opposition to Putin, acts of defiance in the form of “Noon Against Putin” demonstrations marked the final day of voting, indicating that dissent was still alive in Russia. Many gathered outside polling booths the country as well as Russian embassies where citizens were casting their votes to express their discontent with Putin and his rule.
We take a closer look at what exactly were these protests and why they are significant.
A Navalny legacy
Russia’s main critic and Putin’s foremost opponent Alexei Navalny has died, but his presence was strongly felt during the polls, as several heeded his call of attending ‘Noon against Putin’ demonstrations. Two weeks before his death in the Arctic penal colony, Navalny had called for Russians to attend the protest action dubbed as ‘Noon against Putin’ protest.
And after his death, his widow, Yulia Navalnay a, took it forward.
But what exactly was this demonstration? According to the promoters of the protests, Russians were asked to wait until the noon of 17 March to go to their polling station. Once there, they were to vote for anyone as long as it was not Putin.
Earlier, giving the call for people to attend this demonstration, Navalnaya had said in a YouTube video, “The choice is yours. You can vote for any candidate except Putin.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“You can ruin the ballot, you can write ‘Navalny’ in big letters on it. And even if you don’t see the point in voting at all, you can just come and stand at the polling station, and then turn around and go home.”
While Navalny had endorsed this form of agitation, it was actually proposed by St. Petersburg opposition politician Maxim Reznik. He had first suggested the action during a debate – “What to do about the presidential election?” – broadcast in January 2024 on the opposition channel Dozhd.
Since then, most Russian opposition figures have voiced their support for ‘Noon against Putin’ initiative, with Novaya Gazeta, the independent Russian newspaper, even calling it “Navalny’s will”.
As Matthew Wyman, a specialist in Russian politics at Keele University in the UK told France24, “It’s very appropriate to link it to Navalny because it’s the kind of thing he would have done.”
Also read: Why Vladimir Putin has never lost a poll raceIn support of ‘Noon against Putin’
And in line with that, several hundreds across the country and even abroad gathered outside polling booths and participated in the ‘Noon against Putin’ protests.
Social media channels set up by supporters of Navalny showed video clips of lines in several places, including Moscow neighbourhoods such as Nekrasovka and at Tverskaya Street and locations in St, Petersburg. The Navalny team also posted an image from the city of Novosibirsk with the caption: “Today is #noon. The protest has already taken place in the first cities of Siberia. We are looking forward to seeing you.”
Independent news outlets reported of people queuing up suddenly at polling stations on Sunday — the last day of voting — as the clock struck midday. Mediazona, an independent news outlet, reported from a polling station in the north-east of Moscow, “At 11.55, there was no line at all. At 12.01 there was already a line of about 80 people.”
Fontanka, a St. Petersburg-based outlet, published footage of a long queue forming at a polling station on Nevsky Prospekt, the principal avenue in the centre of Russia’s second biggest city.
One voter, who only identified herself as Lena, standing outside the polling booth in Moscow was quoted by the New York Times as saying, “This is our protest — we don’t have any other options. All of us decent people are hostages here.”
Another voter, identified as Kristina, who participated in the demonstration, said: “We are supposed to be the ones with power here, but unfortunately in our country the person in power is a murderer. He killed our Lyosha,” she said, using a nickname for Navalny, for whom she had once worked as a volunteer.
She further stated that she had spoilt her ballot paper by writing “Navalny, we’re with you.”
Leonid Volkov , a Putin critic who had been attacked recently in Vilnius, shared images of people participating in the agitation on social media and wrote, “You saw each other. The world has seen you.” Thanking people for their support, he further wrote: “Russia is not Putin. Russia is you.”
According to Meduza, Russia’s biggest independent news outlet, some voters had cast their ballots which read, ‘killer’, ‘thief’ and ‘The Hague awaits you’.
Even Russians abroad queued up outside embassies at midday to participate in the ‘Noon against Putin’ protests. In the UK, Russians arrived outside Kensington Gardens, bearing signs which read ‘These elections’ are fake’, ‘My president is Alexei Navalny’ and ‘Vladimir Putin, go f**k yourself’.
Similar sights were also witnessed in Armenia and Kazakhstan, in Istanbul, Thailand and across other European cities.
In Germany’s Berlin, Yulia Navalnaya joined the queue and participated in the demonstration. She spent more than five hours in the queue and told reporters after casting her vote that she wrote her late husband’s name on the ballot.
Asked whether she had a message for Putin, Navalnaya replied: “Please stop asking for messages from me or from somebody for Mr Putin. There could be no negotiations and nothing with Mr. Putin, because he’s a killer, he’s a gangster.”
It was later reported by OVD-Info, a group that monitors crackdowns on dissent that at least 74 people had been arrested from different parts of Russia.
Significance of ‘Noon against Putin’ protests
The eventual results of the elections weren’t much affected by the protests, yet they mattered.
Why?
Firstly, it was a tribute to Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison, with his supporters calling it a murder at the hands of Putin.
Moreover, the ‘Noon against Putin’ demonstration reiterated the Opposition’s stance that the elections in Russia are fake. It also was a good way to show mass discontent. It also helped in bringing different factions of Russia’s opposition together. All of these factions urged their supporters to go to polling stations at midday on 17 March and express their dissent.
Apart from expressing dissent , the ‘Noon Against Putin’ campaign helped in boosting the moral of the Russian opposition and strengthen their resolve against Putin. Through this demonstration, Russia’s dissidents were able to participate in one collective action. It also raised questions about Putin’s legitimacy — especially amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
As The Moscow Times wrote in a report, the goal of ‘Noon Against Putin’ was to show opposition to Putin’s autocracy and war, and not to compromise with the tyrant. What was at the core of the protest was the understanding that the only way to succeed in a political struggle is to show up and engage in it.
With inputs from agencies