Putin opponents line up at polling stations on last day of vote | DW News

Let's go to Russia's presidential election where the third and final day of voting is taking place with a steady trickle of people Entering polling stations in a tightly controlled event right across the vast country Critics of Vladimir Putin gathered at the grave of opposition politician Alexei Navalny in Moscow His organization said that thousands of people took part in a form of silent protest By forming long queues at polling stations at midday in the past two days There have been isolated disruptions such as polling booths being set on fire and I poured into ballot boxes But there is little doubt as to what the results will be Putin will extend his almost quarter century in power by an additional six years The abuse you were shared to has been based in Riga, Latvia since Russian authorities closed down Did abuse Moscow Bureau I earlier asked him if people queuing at polling stations are voting or if they are responding to a position call Well, let me put this way I've never seen so many young people at an election even queuing up to vote on a Sunday lunchtime apart from that the answer To your question depends on who you ask the Central Election Commission in Moscow should be happy Then they can say hey Russians are queuing up to fulfill their democratic right and civil duty and vote And that's exactly what the Kremlin wants But of course everyone and especially the young people know why they came to the polling stations today because of the protest called noon against Putin I've seen a video of a 25 year old friend from Siberia on Instagram where he excitedly says that this is the first time he has joined so many like-minded people in years So people in Russia and people abroad can see that there are quite a few people who don't agree with Vladimir Putin's policies right Talking about the election Yuri. How would you describe it so far especially when you compare it to previous ones? Well, I would say on the one hand This is an election like any other in Russia for many many years apart from vandalism here and there even fire attacks at polling stations But the winner has long been determined. There is no waiting for the result on the other hand This is a completely different election than usual because it's of course dominated by war We've been hearing about attacks on Russia for days All schools were for example closed on Friday in the border region of Belgorod where there has been heavy shelling from Ukraine for the last few days with deaths and injuries and An oil refinery exploded in Samara yesterday and drone attacks were apparently prevented near Moscow this morning All of this doesn't really make people in Russia feel Hopefully and confident about their future about the next six years with Vladimir Putin as head of state Right did abuse Yuri Roshetil in Riga. Thank you Thousands of people have lined up at the Russian Embassy here in Berlin Ostensibly to cast their vote on the last day of the presidential election in Russia In fact, the vast majority are there in support of the noon against Putin protests called by the organization of opposition Politician Alexei Navalny who died in a Russian prison last month his widow Yulia Navalnaya Joined the protesters in Berlin Also, there was Mikhail Khodorkovsky a former oil magnate jailed by Putin Similar protests took place at Russian embassies around the world and in Russia itself Joining me now is the W's chief international editor Richard Walker who is at this protest in Berlin Hello, Richard, Yulia Navalnaya the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is taking part in the protest in Berlin. What more can you tell us? Yeah, well Eddie, in fact, she's standing right behind us in the line here I'm not sure if you can see just through to her Yulia Navalnaya, of course the widow of of Alexei Navalny the The opposition leader who died obviously on suspicious circumstances just recently in a Russian prison It is really if you think about it quite Remarkable that that his widow has come to stand in line just like everybody else here the thousands of people who have come to the Russian embassy in Berlin to To cast their vote and and for many of them as you've been saying making a sort of an implicit Protest in so doing so there she is in amongst the other voters Standing quietly saying that she's not going to talk to any media until she's gone into the embassy and cast her ballot And and just like everybody else here It's a really quite an extraordinary scene here on the streets of Berlin a city that of course has history with the Navalny family you remember on the occasion when Alexei Navalny was was poisoned under equally suspicious circumstances He was flown to Berlin for treatment and it was from here that he then returned to Russia now His widow is here wanting to cast her ballot in this election Richard as we say Navalny is expected to vote inside the Russian embassy That means she'll be on Russian territory. Isn't that a bit of a concern? Well, I think inevitably that is going to be something of a concern Of course that there's some inevitable risk potentially that that is being taken there and certainly it is a test for the for the Russian Regime for the authorities here in the embassy, you know, what do they do? Do they allow her to vote normally just like anybody else or do they try to pull something? We simply don't know and of course We'll be watching to see when she Comes out of the embassy later The hope is that she will be addressing at the protest here The hope is that she will make it to that and we will see what she has to say But but I think evidently making a calculated risk here taking a calculated risk Hmm, and I don't know you've not spoken to her yet as you say But you've been speaking to some of the other protesters there. What are they telling you? Yeah, so we've been going up and down the line here and you can see there really are thousands of people here they're waiting I think at least three hours most people to get in and cast their ballot and Just to give you a sense of the kind of people here I mean most of the people who we spoke to Were Putin opponents we did get the sense of that but certainly not all so maybe 60 70% Putin opponents and then the others and Broadly, there was a generational divide older people tended to be people who who were more favorable to towards Vladimir Putin younger people tended to be those who are here to try to take a stand against him and against the war and When we spoke to those people some a lot of people said of course, they don't expect their vote to change anything but they still want to be the one casting it rather than leaving it completely in the hands of the Russian regime as For those who are more sympathetic to Vladimir Putin. It was quite interesting A lot of them were quite hostile towards us as as Western media if you like one person simply refused to Acknowledge that I was trying to talk to him another woman told me really literally to go away So so so some sense of tension around some of those people some hostility from some of them But broadly, I think the atmosphere and the line has been surprisingly positive And I think especially the excitement about Yulia Yulia Navalnaya being right here in this line with everybody else Is a real Philip I think to those who are here to try to take a stand against Putin, right? DWC international editor Richard Walker. Thank you