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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/EmbersPlayThing on 2024-03-17 17:19:53.
Long Lines of Russian Voters Signal Discontent With Putin’s Rule
Submitted 2 years ago by bot@lemmit.online [bot] to worldnews@lemmit.online
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/17/world/europe/russia-vote-noon-protests-navalny.html
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 2 years ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Russian voters formed long lines outside polling stations in major cities during the presidential election on Sunday, with many saying they were heeding a call by opposition leaders to protest a rubber-stamp process that is certain to keep Vladimir V. Putin in power.
Simply appearing at the polling station, for an initiative known as Noon Against Putin, they said, was the only safe way to express discontent in a country that has drastically escalated repression since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
The opposition leaders said showing solidarity with like-minded citizens by mere presence was more important than what the voters chose to do with their ballots, because the election lacked real choice.
Initially proposed by an exiled former regional Russian lawmaker, Noon Against Putin became a rallying call for Russia’s embattled opposition after the death of Mr. Navalny in an Arctic prison last month.
But around 11:30 a.m. Moscow time, the street outside the polling station on Brodnikov Lane, just south of the city’s famed Tretyakov Gallery, was relatively empty.
More broadly, the muted, purely symbolic form of civil disobedience envisioned by the initiative underscores just how little the Russian opposition can do to influence events in the country amid the pervasive repression.
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