Russian diaspora votes on final election day: protest against Putin and the war in Ukraine

Russians living abroad voted on Sunday, the final day of the parliamentary elections — an act many of them describe as a moral duty, but also as a protest, even if symbolic, against President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine.

In the line of voters in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, Olga, an exiled Muscovite, said she had no expectation that her vote would change anything inside Russia. But she came anyway — for solidarity.

“It’s just about doing a bit of show… more symbolic, bringing something positive, for solidarity,” she said, standing in the line of Russians waiting to vote.

These State Duma elections are the first since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Kremlin will most likely present them as proof of public support for Putin’s policies and for a war that has entered its fifth year, with no end in sight. Most anti-war candidates were excluded from the ballot, while the other major parties have consistently voted in line with United Russia, the ruling party.

Hundreds of thousands of Russians, many of them young and well-educated, left the country after the start of the war. They settled in former Soviet countries such as Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan, but also across Europe and beyond.

Varvara, 24, from Moscow, told Reuters in Berlin: “We still have our whole lives ahead of us and we really want to one day be in Russia and help build a new, democratic country.” Outside the Russian embassy in Berlin, several protesters carried a banner in Russian reading “Putin is a murderer and war criminal,” as well as placards in support of Russian prisoners jailed for opposing the war.

Valery, voting in Yerevan, expressed his hope: “I want to believe, with every fiber of my being, that we can still make a difference and vote against the authorities in power.”

Source: Reuters