Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has called for an election day protest against President Vladimir Putin.
As part of the protest, people should form long queues at polling stations on 17 March at midday, Ms Navalnaya said.
“We need to use the election day to show that we exist and there are many of us,” she said in a video message.
Ms Navalnaya’s husband died suddenly at a Russian penal colony on 16 February. She has blamed Mr Putin for his death.
Her call for a polling day protest has been dubbed “Midday against Putin”.
Russia’s presidential election – which most international observers do not believe will be free or fair – will take place from 15 to 17 March. Mr Putin is widely expected to win a fifth term in office.
Ms Navalnaya said turning up at polling stations at the same time was a “very simple and safe action” that could not be prohibited by the authorities, but would allow like-minded people to “see that there are many of us and we are strong”.
People can then vote for any candidate except President Putin, spoil their ballot or write “Navalny” in big letters, Ms Navalnaya said.
The idea of a midday gathering at polling stations was put forward by Navalny two weeks before his death.
Navalny – who continued to keep up a social media presence from jail through messages posted by his lawyers – wrote on X that the election day protest had the chance to be a real “all-Russian protest action… available to everyone, everywhere.”
“Millions will be able to take part in it. And tens of millions will witness it,” Navalny wrote.
Navalny himself was barred from running in the 2018 presidential vote because of an embezzlement conviction widely condemned as politically motivated.
He died while serving a lengthy prison sentence on politically motivated charges.
The Kremlin has said the 47-year-old died of natural causes, but his supporters and many foreign leaders have blamed Mr Putin for his fate.
Ms Navalnaya stepped into the political spotlight soon after husband’s death was announced, and has since addressed the European Parliament and held talks with US President Joe Biden.
In her YouTube message, she spoke of being heartened by the large crowds that came out last week for her husband’s funeral in Moscow.
Since last Friday, thousands of people have continued to turn up to Borisovskoye Cemetery, and Navalny’s grave has been submerged by flowers. “I can’t tell you how much that has meant to me,” Ms Navalnaya said.
“Alexei dreamed of the beautiful Russia of the future – and that is you,” she added.
Yulia Navalnaya, widow of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, called on Russians to join an election day protest at noon on March 17 and to vote against President Vladimir Putin or spoil their ballots.
In a YouTube video, Navalnaya said she had drawn hope from the huge crowds that turned out last week for the funeral of her husband, who died in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, and who since then have submerged his grave in a sea of flowers.
She urged people to join the March 17 action that Navalny, Russia’s best known opposition figure, had called for shortly be died. His idea was that people could register a protest, without any risk of arrest, by all turning out en masse at the same time on election day in cities across the country.
“We need to use the election day to show that we exist and there are many of us. We are real, living people, and we are against Putin. You need to come to the voting station on the same day and at the same time — March 17 at noon,” Yulia Navalnaya said.
“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.”
Since her husband’s death, Navalnaya has promised to continue his work and made several high-profile political appearances in the West, including meeting President Joe Biden and addressing the Munich Security Conference and the European Parliament.
The Kremlin has strongly denied accusations by Navalnaya that Putin had Navalny killed, and has declined to comment on the public response to his death and funeral. His death certificate said he died of natural causes at the age of 47.
The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said on Wednesday the scale of public support for him since his death was proof that his cause lived on, and called for a massive election day protest against President Vladimir Putin.
In a YouTube video, Yulia Navalnaya said she had drawn hope from the huge crowds that turned out last week for the funeral of her husband, who died in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16. Since his burial, supporters have submerged his grave in a sea of flowers.
“Looking at you, I am convinced that everything is not in vain, and this thought gives me strength,” she said.
“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.”
Navalny, in one of his last public messages, had urged people to protest against Putin by voting en masse at noon local time in the March 17 presidential election, forming large crowds and overwhelming polling stations.
Navalnaya took up her husband’s call.
“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,” she said. “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 Navalnaya’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, in power since the last day of 1999 as president or prime minister, is assured of winning six more years in power. 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%.
Two years into the war, Putin’s leading opponents are dead, in jail, or outside the country. Navalnaya called the elections “a complete fiction and a fake”.
“What to do next? The choice is yours. You can vote for any candidate except Putin,” she said. “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.”
Having survived a poisoning attempt in 2020, Navalny, who was 47 when he died, was serving sentences of more than 30 years on fraud, extremism and other charges that he said were trumped up to silence him.
The Kremlin has portrayed Navalny and his supporters as lawbreakers and tools of the West, acting to destabilise Russia. It has denied Navalnaya’s accusations that Putin had him killed.
