"Noon against Putin"

Mass protests in Russia, attack in Moldova

Police checkpoint at "Noon against Putin" in Moscow

(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Protests against the rule of incumbent Vladimir Putin took place at home and abroad at the weekend during the Russian presidential election. Long queues formed outside polling stations in some cities on Sunday afternoon. Supporters of the deceased opposition figure Alexei Navalny had called on people to go and vote at 12.00 noon, thereby sending a harmless signal of protest. The civil rights portal OVD-Info counted around 50 arrests.

Reuters reporters saw a slight increase in the number of voters at polling stations in Moscow and Yekaterinburg on Sunday, including many younger people. Among the several hundred people waiting at each polling station, some said they had responded to the call to protest. The authorities had warned of protests and threatened to crack down. Hundreds of Russian citizens also lined up to vote at diplomatic missions abroad, for example in Kazakhstan and Georgia.

Excluded Nadezhdin is cheered
Opposition politician Boris Nadezhdin, who was excluded from the presidential election, also took part in the peaceful protest action "Noon against Putin". At the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, where there is a polling station, he was received with great applause from students, as a video he posted on Telegram on Sunday shows. "I think you will still have the chance to vote for me," he told those gathered. He announced the publication of his own post-election surveys after the polling stations had closed. Their results differed greatly from what the authorities had expected, he said.

The widow of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in Russian custody, Yulia Navalnaya, was also present at "Noon against Putin" - however, she was unable to be in Moscow due to major security concerns and was therefore present in the German capital Berlin. "Bild" and "TV Rain" published videos:

The queues outside the embassy in Berlin reportedly stretched for several quarters. At least 2000 people are said to have queued. The former oligarch and former political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky was also present:

Attack on Russian embassy in Moldova
In the Moldovan capital Chisinau, a man is said to have detonated two Molotov cocktails during the elections taking place at the diplomatic mission, reports the Russian state news agency "Tass". The 54-year-old has already been arrested. There were no injuries.

In custody for liquid
According to the authorities, there were several protests and attempts at disruption on the first two days of the election on Friday and Saturday. In 20 cases, people had poured liquids into ballot boxes in order to render the ballot papers unusable, the electoral commission had reported. There were also attempts at arson. It is now also known that a young woman who poured liquid into a ballot box is now in custody. The exile media outlet "Mediazona" reports on this. She now faces up to five years in a penal colony.

Navalny's team complains of mass fraud
Navalny's team complained of mass fraud during the vote. According to the Navalny team, the campaign against Putin was also intended to show that the data on voter turnout was also manipulated according to many independent observers.

In some cases, the authorities in Russia had warned against such protests and threatened people with charges of extremism. Voters published ballot papers on social media with the word "murderer" next to Putin's name. Some also simply wrote Navalny's name on the ballot paper. One elderly man, referring to the opposition leader who died in February, said: "My president is no longer among the living". Navalny is buried in Moscow.