Voters line up outside the Russian embassy in France, in Paris, during the Russian presidential election on March 17, 2024. The queue suddenly extended for several hundred meters in the middle of the day on Sunday, March 17, to vote at the Russian embassy on Boulevard Lannes in Paris. “There were few people until 10:30 am. From 11 o’clock, I noticed a big influx,” says Olga Emelianova, 27, stationed at the corner of the embassy to collect an exit poll. All components of the Russian opposition called on voters to come and vote at noon to show a united front and express their mistrust of the presidential election of the day, echoing the operation “Noon against Putin,” also echoed in Russia.
Under the drizzle, the queue extends from Square Claude Debussy, along the huge gray cube of the embassy and ends with a hook at Porte de la Muette around the monument of Pierre I of Serbia and Alexander I of Yugoslavia. Most of the Russians waiting under umbrellas are under 35 years old and many have come in groups. “I am voting for the first time in my life… if you can call it a vote,” explains Anton, 21, accompanied by his older sister and a friend. “I came because the death of [Russian opposition figure Alexei] Navalny still bothers me. I will check the boxes of two candidates other than Putin, as Navalny’s team recommended, so that my vote can be considered expressed.” “I don’t care about the count,” intervenes Alexandra, 25. “I will write Navalny in big letters and cross out the other names.” They are impressed by the images coming from Russian polling stations showing urns set on fire or stained with ink by protesters, but do not want to express their anger in that way. “Who knows what can happen… one day I will certainly need to renew my papers at the embassy,” adds Alexandra.
Fifteen CRS vans line the sidewalks of Porte de la Muette. In front of the monument of Pierre I of Serbia, a gathering grows with the flow of those who have already voted, those who will not vote, and also French people who came to show their solidarity. “Freedom, freedom,” shouts a man at the top of his lungs, whose knowledge of Russian clearly only extends to this word meaning “freedom.” White-blue-white flags are waved by the protesters, in the colors of a country that does not yet exist: democratic Russia.
“Today, the turnout is enormous, no doubt about it,” says Olga Kokorina, 45, director of Espace Libertés, a support center for opponents of Vladimir Putin, inaugurated in Paris in February 2024. “Six years ago [during the previous Russian presidential election], there was no waiting at all to vote at the embassy.” This time, Olga did not vote, believing that participating in the protest is enough. Olga Prokopieva, president of the association Russie-Libertés, shares this view and refuses to participate in what she considers an “electoral charade.”
