On this last day of bogus "elections" in Russia, which are nothing more than exercises in rubber stamping war criminal Vladimir Putin's continuance in office, there is still a noticeable spark of protest against the "forever president" and his authoritarian regime. From the Washington Post:
"On the final day of a presidential election with only one possible result, Russians protested Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian hold on power by forming long lines to vote against him at noon Sunday — answering the call of opposition leader Alexei Navalny who had urged the midday action before dying suddenly in prison last month.
The 'Noon Against Putin' protest, with voters forming queues outside polling stations in major cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, was a striking — if futile — display of solidarity and dissent designed to counteract the Kremlin’s main message — that Putin is a legitimate president commanding massive support.
Many polling stations in Moscow were deathly quiet on Sunday morning, but long lines appeared at exactly 12 p.m. — despite authorities sending mass text messages warning people against participating in 'extremist' actions and in the face of severe repression of dissent since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which has resulted in hundreds of arrests. [snip]
Many voters also posted photographs of their spoiled ballots with protest slogans such as 'Navalny is my president,' 'No to war, no to Putin,' and 'Putin is a murderer.'” (our emphasis)
The democratic opposition to Putin is facing threats of severe repression and prison, but is still determined to show their refusal to bow to the Russian thug, even more so after movement leader and hero Alexei Navalny was murdered in a Russian prison camp on February 16. The article contains many interviews with voters -- mostly 30 and under -- who showed up at "Noon Against Putin" protests, and the courage they're showing is striking, even as police vans park nearby in a threatening gesture.
Putin, the man who mourns the death of the Soviet Union, is busy reconstituting it as a fascistic gangster state, eager to expand beyond its borders to former Soviet republics. Ukraine is one of those former republics, and the most prized by the Kremlin. It's even more essential that he and his regime be stopped there, and wherever else he threatens a takeover.
(photo: Voters line up in Moscow. Maxim Shemeto / Reuters)
