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ALEXEI Navalny’s widow has urged Russians to unleash chaos on election day as Vladimir Putin eyes up another term.
The tyrant is set to hand him another six years in power in a sham election next week.
Navalny’s widow has called on Russians to overwhelm polling stations
Getty
ReutersNavalny‘s vengeful widow Yulia has called on supporters to protest against the aging dictator, 71, by swarming voting stations.
She has backed an initiative to overload polling stations as Russians head out to place their vote on March 17.
At Navalny’s funeral last week, huge crowds chanted “Russia without Putin” as the feared murdered opposition leader was lowered into a grave.
In a video shared on YouTube, Yulia said the scale of public support for Navalny since his death on February 16 was proof that his cause lived on.
She said: “Looking at you, I am convinced that everything is not in vain, and this thought gives me strength.
“Now you all know that there are actually a lot of us, all those who love and support Alexei, who share his ideas and, as long as we have each other, it’s not over.”
In one of his final defiant public messages, Navalny urged people to protest against Putin by voting en masse at noon local time on March 17.
Taking up her husband’s call, Yulia said: “This is a very simple and safe action, it cannot be prohibited, and it will help millions of people see like-minded people and realise that we are not alone.
“We are surrounded by people who are also against war, against corruption and against lawlessness.”
The stakes are high for both the opposition and the Kremlin.
If the “Noon Against Putin” action fizzles, it will be a blow to Yulia’s hopes of taking on her husband’s mantle, even though she is based outside Russia, and showing that opposition to the Kremlin is still alive.
But if people heed the call, it could turn into a big rolling protest across Russia’s 11 time zones and present a dilemma for the authorities, as police would have no obvious legal grounds to disperse people standing in line to vote.
Putin has been in power since the final day of 1999 – and is set to grab power until 2030.
Two would-be challengers who spoke out against the Ukraine war were disqualified from the election on technical grounds and none of the three remaining candidates is critical of Putin.
The Kremlin says he will win because he commands genuine support across the country, with opinion poll ratings around 80 per cent.
Two years into the war, Putin’s leading opponents are dead, in jail, or outside the country.
Yulia called the elections “a complete fiction and a fake”.
She added: “What to do next? The choice is yours. You can vote for any candidate except Putin.
“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.”
Mourners at Navaly’s funeral last week were heard chanting: “Putin is a killer”, “We won’t forget”, “Freedom for political prisoners”, and “Russia without Putin”.
More than 1,000 people waited near the church to pay their respects to the anti-corruption activist, according to one of his allies.
His grave has since been flooded with flowers.
Police detained more than 400 people across the country at memorials and rallies to honour Navalny the day after he died in jail.
Having survived a poisoning attempt in 2020, Navalny was serving sentences of more than 30 years on trumped-up charges when he died at the age of 47.
It is feared the fierce Putin critic was killed – with his body said to be found covered in bruises.
The Kremlin has portrayed Navalny and his supporters as lawbreakers and tools of the West, acting to destabilise Russia.
It has denied Yulia’s accusations that Putin had him killed.
AP
ReutersLife of Alexei Navalny
PUTIN'S best known opponent Alexei Navalny, 47, has died in prison.
Here is a timeline that took the leader of the opposition from the face of freedom in Russia and the Kremlin’s biggest foe to a hellhole Siberian prison and onto an early grave.
June 4, 1976 — Navalny is born in a western part of the Moscow region
1997 — Graduates from Russia’s RUDN university, where he majored in law
2004 — Forms a movement against rampant over-development in Moscow
2008 — Gains notoriety for calling out corruption in state-run corporation
December 2011 — Participates in mass protests sparked by reports of widespread rigging of Russia’s election, and is arrested and jailed for 15 days for “defying a government official”
March 2012 – Further mass protests break out and Navalny accuses key Kremlin cronies of corruption
July 2012 — Russia’s Investigative Committee charges Navalny with embezzlement. He rejects the claims and says they are politically motivated
2013 — Navalny runs for mayor in Moscow
July 2013 — A court in Kirov convicts Navalny of embezzlement in the Kirovles case, sentencing him to five years in prison – he appeals and is allowed to continue campaign
September 2013 — Official results show Navalny finishes second in the mayor’s race
February 2014 — Navalny is placed under house arrest
December 2014 — Navalny and his brother, Oleg, are found guilty of fraud
February 2016 — The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated Navalny’s right to a fair trial
November 2016 — Russia’s Supreme Court overturns Navalny’s sentence
December 2016 — Navalny announces he will run in Russia’s 2018 presidential election
February 2017 — The Kirov court retries Navalny and upholds his five-year suspended sentence from 2013
April 2017 – Survives an assassination attempt he blames on Kremlin
December 2017 — Russia’s Central Electoral Commission bars him from running for president
August, 2020 – Navalny falls into a coma on a flight and his team suspects he was poisoned. German authorities confirm he was poisoned with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
Jan 2021 — After five months in Germany, Navalny is arrested upon his return to Russia
Feb 2021 — A Moscow court orders Navalny to serve 2 ½ years in prison
June 2021 — A Moscow court shuts down Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his extended political network
Feb 2022 — Russia invades Ukraine
March 2022 — Navalny is sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court
2023 — Over 400 Russian doctors sign an open letter to Putin, urging an end to what it calls abuse of Navalny, following reports that he was denied basic medication & suffering from slow poisoning
April, 2023 — Navalny from inside prison says he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life
Aug 2023 – A court in Russia extends Navalny’s prison sentence by 19 years
Dec 2023 – He disappears from his prison as his team fear he could be assassination. He then reappears weeks later in one of Siberia’s toughest prisons – the ‘Polar Wolf’ colony
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