Russians Brave Icy Temperatures to Protest Putin and Election
And vote against Putin." Even among the protesters, there was support for this position, with one man yelling out, "Don’t support
the boycott, you will be helping Putin if you do!" Some political analysts suggested that the boycott was a poor tactic.
A video broadcast from Omsk, in central Siberia, showed a woman yelling, "They don’t want elections
because they don’t want anything to change." The protests, expected in almost 100 cities, were called by Aleksei A. Navalny, a charismatic, anti-corruption opposition leader, after he was barred from running for the presidency because of legal problems widely seen as manufactured to prevent his candidacy.
28, 2018
MOSCOW — Protesters across Russia braved icy temperatures on Sunday to demonstrate against the lack of choice in a March presidential election
that is virtually certain to see President Vladimir V. Putin chosen for a fourth term.
Mr. Navalny, who has made a name for himself as an anti-corruption campaigner, finds himself on one side of a dispute over whether
opponents of Mr. Putin should boycott the vote or exercise their right, even if no other candidate stands a chance of winning.
For how many more years will your business receive less revenue than it is due?" Mr. Navalny was detained before he reached the
several thousand demonstrators gathered in Pushkin Square in central Moscow and other main avenues closer to the Kremlin.