… and show how they “don’t want Putin”
Many hundreds of Russians waited “in an orderly fashion for their turn to vote” at the Russian embassy in Lisbon today, many of them admitting their desire for change as well as disbelief in the whole electoral process.
According to Lusa, a large number of Russians joined the queue after midday – the time suggested for a wave of protest by opposition leader Alexei Navalny – who died suddenly in an Artic penal colony last month.
They came singly, in groups, accompanied by children and babies – all slowly being allowed to enter the embassy which was protected by ‘bars’ and a significant police presence.
Mateus, 21, a young Russian student who has been in Portugal for two months on an Erasmus course, was part of the protest wave and explained in halting Portuguese that, despite what Russian authorities say, the mobilization of anti-Putin voters in several countries shows that people have had enough.
In previous elections, he admitted, the opposition vote was small, but now “everyone is voting against Putin”, which he hopes will be reflected in an exit poll that the voteabroad.info project is carrying out near the embassy.
“With the help of our project we will see the real results,” he said.
Actress Anna Eremin explained how she “doesn’t believe” the official results will be real, but she was heartened to see so many people voting close to midday, in response to the international call launched by Navalny shortly before his death.
“I’m voting anti-Putin and this is my hope, that one day this Putin dictatorship will end,” she told Lusa.
Eremin believes the Russian community is united and that this is “a sign that Navalny’s death has woken people up”.
“We really need to move. Even if the results don’t show anything, they show that we are in the majority,” she said, recalling that “when the war (against Ukraine) started, people were still afraid to speak out, but that fear is coming to an end.
Another Russian in the queue, Anastasia, told Lusa that she thought today was “a great moment”, as it highlighted citizens’ desire for change.
“It doesn’t matter where we put the cross on the ballot paper,” she admitted, but it is very positive that so many Russians living in Portugal turned up to do so, in defiance.
Regarding the Russian community in Portugal, she described it as “strong and with many new people, many children”.
The “Noon against Putin” protest was scheduled for today -the last of the three voting days in the Russian presidential elections – and invited Russian citizens, in Russia and throughout the world, to go to their respective polling stations at noon “to express a collective position against the current political situation”.
Vladimir Putin has been in power since the year 2000 and is seeking a fifth presidential term, having also served as prime minister between 2008 and 2012.
Source material: LUSA
