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At Russian embassy in Paris, thousands turn out for vote

Russian nationals formed long queues outside Moscow's embassy in Paris on Sunday to cast their vote on the final day of elections set to extend President Vladimir Putin's rule.

Published: 17 March 2024 15:03 CET

At Russian embassy in Paris, thousands turn out for vote

Voters queue at the Russian Embassy in France, in Paris, on March 17, 2024. Photo: Bertrand GUAY/AFP.

Thousands of voters gathered in the rain outside the Paris embassy where opponents of Putin had called for a protest in memory of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Similar scenes played out in Berlin and other European capitals.

Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, received flowers from supporters and chatted with fellow voters in the long queue outside the Russian embassy in Berlin.

Navalny supporters had called for people to go to polling stations in a “Midday Against Putin” protest and spoil their ballots.

Navalny, Putin’s most prominent rival, died in mysterious circumstances in an Arctic prison last month.

“I will use my ballot as a leaflet,” said Tatyana Leontyeva, 43, as she waited for her turn outside the Paris embassy. “I think I will write Navalny on it, I will say that Putin is illegitimate, I support democratic values,” she told AFP.

Vyacheslav Dorofeyev, who works for a French bank, said that there “is the desire to somehow change the situation”.

In Moldova, police detained a 54-year-old man after two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the Russian embassy, according to press reports.

“He justified his action by some dissatisfaction he has with the actions of the Russian authorities,” police said.

In Istanbul, home to tens of thousands of young Russians having settled there since leaving their home country, the queues outside Russia’s consulate had reached 400 metres (1,300 feet) by the early afternoon, with most people having arrived for the midday protest appointment.

“We want to make Putin’s job more difficult,” said Yuri, who like his companion Elena — who was wearing Ukraine’s national colour yellow — declined to give his last name. The couple said they fled Russia in December 2022.

“I was devastated when Navalny died, I wept. That’s why I came at noon today,” said Vadim, 31, a Russian married to a Ukrainian.

In Belgrade, activists held up a banner reading “Putin is not Russia”, winning applause from many of the hundreds of people queueing at the polling station.

“Some people plan to spoil their ballot, to make it invalid by voting for multiple candidates,” said Peter Nikitin, an activist and founder of a local
organisation for a democratic Russia. “If I have time, I will do the same,” he told AFP.

Not all voters in Paris on Sunday were against Putin’s re-election.

“How can you be against Putin?”, said one Russian man living in Paris who declined to give his name. “He is saving the world.”

Svetlana Myasnikova, a 53-year-old teacher said that she too would vote for Putin. “He is the best president ever,” she told AFP.

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.