As of: March 16, 2024, 7:58 a.m
By: Klaus Rimpel
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Yekaterina Duntsova was denied registration for the presidential election on March 17.
© Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP/dpa
There is no doubt that Vladimir Putin will be re-elected as president, as the opposition candidates were already excluded in advance.
Yekaterina Duntsova is not discouraged by this.
Munich – Russia is voting – but the winner has already been decided.
EU Council President Charles Michel sarcastically congratulated Vladimir Putin on his “landslide victory” when the polls opened on Friday.
“No opposition.
No freedom.
No choice,” explained the Belgian Michel.
In fact, in addition to Putin, only three hopeless competitors are allowed to serve as election fig leaves, all of whom are in line with the Kremlin.
The only truly opposition candidates, Yekaterina Duntsova and Boris Nadezhdin, were not even approved by the election commission.
According to her supporters, the 40-year-old's candidacy was rejected in December because the letters of some of the names on the supporters' signatures required for the candidacy were reversed.
Duntsova is not thinking of ingratiating herself with the Putin regime
The electoral commission spoke of “serious errors” in the election documents.
Ella Pamfilova, head of the electoral commission and Putin confidant, gave the opposition members advice: “You are a young woman, you still have everything ahead of you.
Every minus can be turned into a plus.
Every experience is an experience.”
But Duntsova is not thinking of ingratiating herself to the regime - nor of fleeing into exile.
Like Yulia Navalnaya, the declared opponent of the attack on Ukraine called on all Putin opponents to appear at the polling station at twelve o'clock sharp on Sunday, the last of the three election days.
The idea behind the campaign: If everyone goes to vote at the same time, the polling stations will be overloaded.
This “lunch against Putin,” as the opposition calls it, is intended to serve as a legal opportunity to express dissatisfaction with Putin’s regime.
It is unclear how many Russians will have the courage to take part in the action: The Russian public prosecutor's office threatened to punish any form of protest as a criminal offense.
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Dunzowa doesn't want to be intimidated
In any case, Duntsova does not want to be intimidated by Putin's opponents despite the murders, beatings and arrests.
Her mostly young supporters hope that after the death of Alexei Navalny she could become the new leading figure of the critics still remaining in Russia.
The harassment has been going on against her for a long time: she was summoned to the local police department, where, among other things, she was asked questions about her attitude to the “special operation” in Ukraine.
Dunzowa invoked her right to refuse to testify.
Her bank account at the state bank VTB was frozen on the grounds that she was receiving money from exiled Putin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Duntsova, who had previously only been active as a city councilor in the Russian province, founded her own party called Dawn after her failed presidential candidacy.
She refuses to give up.
“We must act to make our voices heard,” she said.
She hopes that this will give Russians “the right to live without fear, to speak freely and to have confidence in the future.”
She calls for peace with Kiev, an end to discrimination against homosexuals and the release of all political prisoners in Russia.
According to Duntsova, Russia is on the path of “self-destruction”
Regarding the role of Navalny's widow, who lives in exile, as a possible new leading figure of Putin's opponents, Duntsova told ZDF
:
"In my opinion, it is impossible to become leader of the Russian opposition without being in Russia." Duntsova worked for the local for 16 years TV station in Rzhev (200 kilometers west of Moscow), was also editor-in-chief there.
She has two daughters and a son, whom she raised as a single mother.
Russia is on the path of “self-destruction”.
The 40-year-old explains her commitment by ensuring that her children can live in a better Russia.
(Klaus Rimpel)