In a video message, the widow of opponent Alexeï Navalny, Yulia Navalnaïa, called on Russians this Wednesday to express their opposition to Vladimir Putin.
She invites them to take to the streets on March 17 at noon, the third and last day of the presidential election when the current master of the Kremlin must be re-elected in the absence of real opposition candidates.
“You can vote for any candidate except Putin, you can spoil your ballot, you can write “Navalny” in big letters.
And even if you don't see the point in voting at all, you can just come and show up at the polling station, then turn around and go home,” said the exiled widow of opponent Alexeï Navalny, whose funeral last week in Moscow was attended by several thousand people.
17 марта.
Полдень.
За Навального.
pic.twitter.com/9fxFxt0NOY
— Yulia Navalnaya (@yulia_navalnaya) March 6, 2024
Yulia Navalnaïa claims to have drawn “hope” from the huge crowds who gathered last week for the funeral of her husband, who died in a penal colony in the Arctic on February 16 and who has since overwhelmed his grave with flowers.
Also read “I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny”: Yulia Navalnaïa, the opposition’s legacy
His idea is that people can demonstrate, without any risk of arrest, by showing up en masse at the same time on voting day in cities across the country.
“We must take advantage of election day to show that we exist and that there are many of us.
We are real, living people, and we are against Putin.
You have to go to the polling station on the same day and at the same time,” she said.
Since her husband's death, Yulia Navalnaya has promised to continue her work and has made several high-profile political appearances in the West, including meeting with US President Joe Biden and speaking at the Munich Security Conference and at the European Parliament.
The Kremlin has strongly denied Navalnaya's accusations that Putin had Navalny killed and refused to comment on the public reaction to his death and funeral.
His death certificate indicates that he died of natural causes at the age of 47.