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☆ As Russia Mourns Attack Victims, State Media Intensifies Blame of Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Ivan Nechepurenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As Russians grieved Monday for victims of the bloody assault on a concert hall near Moscow that killed at least 137 people, President Vladimir V. Putin was scheduled to meet with government officials to discuss the tragedy, the worst such attack in the capital in two decades. The government appears to be stepping up efforts to pin the blame on Ukraine. On Sunday, hours after a district court arraigned four men suspected of carrying out the Friday night attack, the main evening news shows on Russia’s main television channels featured reports suggesting that Ukraine was responsible. The main message was that Western countries were pushing a theory that a branch of the Islamic State was behind the attack, which took place at Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow, to shift blame away from Ukraine. “The United States and Europe understand that any connection between Ukraine and the attack against Crocus City Hall would be suicidal for Kyiv and the whole anti-Russian alliance,” said one anchor, Dmitri Melnikov, in a report on Vesti Nedeli, the flagship weekly news show on Rossiya-1, the main state-owned television network.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, ”, Dmitri Melnikov, Nedeli Organizations: Islamic, Crocus City, Kyiv Locations: Moscow, Ukraine, Islamic State, United States, Europe

☆ Ukrainians Shun Kremlin Suggestions Their Country Was Behind Moscow Attack
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Constant Méheut | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ukrainians have reacted with a mixture of concern and mockery to the narrative pushed by the Kremlin and Russian state media that Ukraine was behind the terrorist attack Friday on a Moscow concert hall, a claim made despite the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility. “This is a typical provocation,” Iryna Blakyta, 24, a resident of Kyiv, said on Monday. “It’s typical for Russia.” She said President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia would use the attack to create a rally-around-the flag effect directed against Ukraine, after more than two years of war have worn down the Russian population. “He needs to mobilize people,” Ms. Blakyta said, “he needs to show who the enemy is.”That worry was palpable Monday morning in Kyiv, which was targeted by two ballistic missiles in broad daylight, the third air assault against the Ukrainian capital in five days. A university building in a central part of the city was reduced to rubble in the attack, and officials said at least 10 people were injured.

Persons: Iryna, “, ”, Vladimir V, Putin, Ms, Blakyta Organizations: Kremlin, Ukraine Locations: Ukraine, Moscow, Kyiv, Russia

☆ Moscow Concert Hall Shooting Russia Begins Day of Mourning for Victims
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Mike Ives | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

The terrorist attack outside Moscow a few days later was a blow to his aura as a leader for whom national security is paramount. Just days later came a searing counterpoint: His vaunted security apparatus failed to prevent Russia’s deadliest terrorist attack in 20 years. Inside Russia, the election — and its predetermined outcome — underscored Mr. Putin’s dominance over the nation’s politics. The area is closed as part of increased security measures after the terrorist attack on Friday. Before Friday, the most recent mass-casualty terrorist attack in the capital region was a suicide bombing at an airport in Moscow in 2011 that killed 37 people.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, “, ” Aleksandr Kynev, ” Mr, Mr, ”, Nanna Heitmann, Aleksei A, ” Ruslan Leviev, Olga Skabeyeva, Margarita Simonyan, Russia’s, Aleksandr Dugin, Dugin, Dugin’s, Andriy Yusov, Putin’s, Shamil Zhumatov, Kynev, Vladimir Putin’s, Constant Méheut Organizations: Kremlin, Islamic State, Passengers, The New York Times, Terrorism, Islamic, ., Reuters Locations: Russia, Moscow, Ukraine, Russian, Beslan, United States

☆ Thousands gather in Russia to mourn victims of concert hall attack
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Sophie Tanno | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Russia on Sunday held a day of mourning after at least 137 people were killed in an attack on a concert venue in Moscow, the country’s worst attack in two decades. The attack was the deadliest to hit Russia since the Beslan school siege of 2004. Thousands of people from cities across Russia lined up in the rain on Sunday to place flowers at a memorial outside the Crocus City Hall near Moscow to honor those killed. One of those there - 37-year-old Alexander Matveev - told CNN people in Russia felt insecure and worried another attack may take place. Vitaly Smolnikov/APPutin lit a candle at his residence outside Moscow.

Persons: Alexander Matveev, “, Putin, ” Matveev, Vladimir Putin, ”, Vitaly Smolnikov, He's, ” Amaq Organizations: CNN, Sunday, ISIS, Hall, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Kremlin, Russian, RIA Novosti Locations: Russia, Moscow, Beslan, Crocus, Ukraine, Russian

Bodies were recovered, flowers were laid and fingers were pointed on Sunday as competing narratives took shape over who was behind the terrorist attack on a Russian concert hall where at least 137 people out to enjoy an evening of music were killed. President Vladimir V. Putin has hinted that Ukraine was behind the Friday night attack. He stopped short of accusing Kyiv directly, but on Sunday, some of his allies showed no such compunction. American officials have said that the attack appeared to be the work of an offshoot of the Islamic State, and that there is no evidence connecting Kyiv to it. But many Russian nationalist commentators and ultraconservative hawks are pushing the idea that Ukraine is the obvious culprit.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Sergei A, Markov Organizations: Islamic, Kremlin, “, ISIS Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Kyiv, Islamic State

☆ Crocus City attack: The ghost of Russia’s past wars comes back to haunt Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Nick Paton Walsh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Twenty years ago, the Dubrovka gunmen were the disturbed product of Russia’s savage anti-terror campaign that summarily executed hundreds of military aged males in Chechnya in the early 2000s. Emergency services personnel and police work at the scene of the Crocus City Hall attack. First, there will be further efforts to suggest Ukraine and the West are somehow involved in these attacks. The Dubrovka attack was followed two years later by airplanes being blown out of the sky and the catastrophic nightmare of the Beslan school siege. In 2002, Dubrovka forced Moscow reluctantly yet closer to the United States’ war on terror.

Persons: Vladimir Putin’s, Putin, Kadyrov, Stringer, Maria Zakharova, Margarita Simonyan, overstretched Putin, Dubrovka, Yevgeny Prigozhin Organizations: CNN, Gunmen, Dubrovka Theatre, Chechen, Crocus City, Kremlin, Authorities, Getty, Russia Today, ISIS Locations: Moscow, Crocus, Russia, Chechnya, Iraq, Syria, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Caucasus, AFP, Ukraine, fatigues, Russian, Beslan, United States

☆ Russia Has Suffered Other Major Attacks in Recent Decades
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For many Russians, the massacre at a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday night brought to mind shootings and bombings across the country in recent decades, events that the authorities often described as terrorism. The authorities linked many of those attacks to Russia’s wars against Chechen separatists in the 1990s and 2000s. Those conflicts helped enable the rise of Vladimir V. Putin, who over his two decades in power has sought to project an image of being tough on terrorism.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin Organizations: Chechen Locations: Moscow

☆ Deadly Moscow Attack Shatters Putin’s Security Promise to Russians
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Anton Troianovski | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Just days later came a searing counterpoint: His vaunted security apparatus failed to prevent Russia’s deadliest terrorist attack in 20 years. The assault on Friday, which killed at least 133 people at a concert hall in suburban Moscow, was a blow to Mr. Putin’s aura as a leader for whom national security is paramount. “The election demonstrated a seemingly confident victory,” Aleksandr Kynev, a Russian political scientist, said in a phone interview from Moscow. “And suddenly, against the backdrop of a confident victory, there’s this demonstrative humiliation.”Mr. Putin seemed blindsided by the assault. When he did, the Russian leader said nothing about the mounting evidence that a branch of the Islamic State committed the attack.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, “, ” Aleksandr Kynev, ” Mr, Mr, ” Organizations: Islamic State Locations: Russia, Moscow, Ukraine, Russian, Beslan

☆ Crocus City: Appalling Moscow terror attack is a blow to a Russian leader who promised security
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Matthew Chance | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The appalling attack on the vast Crocus City Hall concert venue and shopping complex near Moscow, which has been claimed by ISIS, has left hundreds of innocents killed or injured. The four men suspected of carrying out the attack were arrested near Russia’s border with Ukraine, Russian authorities said. For years, the Kremlin strongman has been cast as a leader able to guarantee order in this vast, turbulent country. In the same way, the recent death of Alexey Navalny, Russian most prominent opposition leader, has permanently silenced a vocal Kremlin critic. But for a leader who has promised security and stability to Russians, a major attack on Russian soil is yet another powerful blow.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner, Alexey Navalny Organizations: CNN, Crocus City Hall, ISIS, Ukraine – Kyiv, Kremlin, intel Locations: Russia, Crocus, Moscow, Russia’s, Ukraine, Putin’s, Ukrainian

The group got a dramatic second wind soon after the Taliban toppled the Afghan government that year. The attack raised ISIS-K’s international profile, positioning it as a major threat to the Taliban’s ability to govern. Counterterrorism officials in Europe say that in recent months they have snuffed out several nascent ISIS-K plots to attack targets there. And now the group has claimed responsibility for the attack in Moscow. “ISIS-K accuses the Kremlin of having Muslim blood in its hands, referencing Moscow’s interventions in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria.”

Persons: Biden, Michael E, “, Qassim Suleimani, Vladimir V, Putin, Colin P, Clarke, ” Organizations: Taliban, U.S, Islamic State, ISIS, military’s, Command, Counterterrorism, Soufan, Kremlin Locations: Kabul, Afghanistan, Moscow, State Khorasan Province, U.S, United States, Persian, Europe, Kerman, Iran, Gen, Iranian, Russia, New York, Chechnya, Syria

☆ In First Remarks on Attack, Putin Tries to Link Assailants to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Anton Troianovski | More About Anton Troianovski | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia laid the groundwork on Saturday for blaming Ukraine for the Moscow concert hall attack. And in making his first remarks on the assault more than 19 hours after it began, he pledged to punish the perpetrators, “whoever they may be, whoever may have sent them.”Mr. Putin, in a five-minute televised address, claimed that someone in Ukraine had tried to help the attackers escape across the border from Russia before they were apprehended by Russian security services. He did not definitively pin the attack on Ukraine; nor did he refer to the assessment by American officials that a branch of the Islamic State was behind it. “They were trying to hide and were moving toward Ukraine,” Mr. Putin said, referring to the four men who carried out the attack and who the Kremlin said had been captured in western Russia. “Based on preliminary information, a window for crossing the border was prepared for them by the Ukrainian side.”

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Mr, “, ” Mr, ” Organizations: Ukraine, Islamic Locations: Russia, Moscow, Ukraine, Islamic State, Ukrainian

The United States collected intelligence in March that Islamic State-Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, the branch of the group based in Afghanistan, had been planning an attack on Moscow, according to officials. In addition to publicly warning on March 7 about a possible attack, U.S. officials said they had privately told Russian officials about the intelligence pointing to an impending attack. It is not clear how much information the United States gave Russian officials beyond what was in the public warning. Western intelligence agencies had collected intelligence about possible planning by ISIS-K to bomb the service. As in Russia, ISIS-K claimed responsibility for that attack.

Persons: ”, Vladimir V, Putin, Colin P, Clarke, Qassim Suleimani Organizations: Islamic State, United, ISIS, Soufan, Kremlin, United States Locations: Moscow, United States, State, Khorasan, Afghanistan, Russia, Europe, New York, Chechnya, Syria, Iran, U.S, United

The warning was related to the attack on Friday, according to people briefed on the matter. Pro-Kremlin voices immediately seized on the U.S. Embassy’s warning to paint America as trying to scare Russians. And he has been quick to accuse Ukraine of acts of terrorism to justify his invasion of the country. But I would disabuse you at this early hour of any connection to Ukraine.”“Our thoughts obviously are going to be with the victims of this terrible, terrible shooting attack,” he also said. Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office, said in a video statement that “Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do” with the attack.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Mr, ”, John Kirby, Maria Zakharova, Washington, Mykhailo Podolyak, Aishvarya Kavi Organizations: U.S, Embassy, State Department, Kyiv, Biden’s National Security Council, White, Reuters, “ Locations: Moscow, America, Russia, Ukraine, Russian, U.S, Washington

☆ War, reforms and a possible successor? Here's what we could see from 6 more years of Putin
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-19 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Analysts share their views on what we can expect now that Putin has strengthened his grip on power, with the Ukraine war, domestic economic reforms and a possible government reshuffle key factors to watch. Having cleared more of a procedural hurdle than a real test of his policies and popularity in the election, Putin will have more freedom to advance contentious reforms at home, analysts note. Russian President Vladimir Putin delivering an annual address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, at Moscow's Gostiny Dvor, in Moscow on Feb. 29, 2024. MOSCOW, RUSSIA - JANUARY 8: (RUSSIA OUT) A woman eats hot corn while walking along the Red Square near the Kremlin, as air temperatures dropped to -18 degrees Celcius, January,8 2024, in Moscow, Russia. However, with the dynamics of the war now shifting in Russia's favor, Putin might feel more confident with the reshuffle.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Natalia Kolesnikova, Vladimir Putin's, Putin, embolden Putin, Liam Peach, Jose Colon, Anton Siluanov, Tursa, Adeline Van Houtte, Donald Trump, Dmitry Peskov, Peach, he's, Sergei Shoigu, Sergei Lavrov, Mikhail Mishustin, Dmitry Medvedev, Gavriil Organizations: Afp, Getty, Kremlin, Commission, Analysts, U.S, Capital Economics, Anadolu, Anadolu Agency, Economist Intelligence Unit, Federal Assembly, Russian Federation, New, Putin, Security Council, Sputnik Locations: Crimea, Red, Moscow, Russia, Russian, Central, Ukraine, Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, Eastern Europe, Europe, U.S, Russia's, MOSCOW, RUSSIA

☆ How Putin and Xi both bent their nations to their will to become presidents for life
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-19 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

In the past decade, Putin and Xi have crushed what little remained of domestic opposition on their paths to absolute power. Advertisement"Both Putin and Xi's careers were forged as highly effective backroom operators forging relationships of dependency and patronage," he said. GREG BAKER via Getty ImagesDover said it would be a mistake to see Putin and Xi simply as dictators operating by arbitrary fiat. Both, he said, had built effective networks of loyalists capable of responding to crises and enacting their ambitious strategies to seize more global power. Xi and Putin bond over hatred of Western powerIt's on the global stage that the synergy between the leaders is of growing significance and growing alarm to Western leaders.

Persons: —, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Putin, It's, Xi, Graeme Thompson, Robert Dover, Li, notionally, Korea's, GREG BAKER, Getty Images Dover, Xi's, Thompson Organizations: Service, Business, Reuters, Eurasia Group, Hollywood, Getty, University of Hull, Communist Party, US, National People's, of, People, Getty Images, Central, Putin, Beijing Locations: China, Russia, Soviet Union, Moscow, Hong Kong, Beijing, Dover, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Taiwan, Putin Russia, East Asia

☆ Israel Faces Tough Balancing Act on Russia and the West
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-19 | by ( Steven Erlanger | Adam Sella | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Israel, though heavily dependent on support from the United States, Germany and other Western nations, has been noticeably out of step with them when it comes to relations with Russia during its war of conquest in Ukraine. Long before Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, the country refused Ukrainian requests to send arms or to apply widespread sanctions on Russia, including stopping flights to the country. Despite the eagerness of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, himself Jewish, to visit the country and show solidarity after the attack, he has never made the trip. The reasons reflect Israel’s unique security needs and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s delicate relationship with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, a primary supporter of Israel’s enemies in the region whom Israel cannot afford to offend. As Israel’s war with Hamas enters its sixth month, Mr. Netanyahu needs Mr. Putin’s good will to help constrain Iran in particular and to continue to strike Iranian targets in Syria while trying to avoid harming the forces Russia maintains there.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Benjamin Netanyahu’s, Vladimir V, Putin, Netanyahu Organizations: Hamas Locations: Israel, United States, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Long, Gaza, Iran, Syria

☆ Behind Putin’s Potemkin Vote, Real Support. But No Other Choices.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Paul Sonne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Kremlin stage-managed Russia’s presidential vote over the weekend to send a singular message at home and abroad: that President Vladimir V. Putin’s support is overwhelming and unshakable, despite or even because of his war against Ukraine. Mr. Putin, they said, won more than 87 percent of the vote, his closest competitor just 4 percent. The Levada Center, an independent pollster, reported last month that 86 percent of Russians approved of Mr. Putin, his highest rating in more than seven years. But while the figures may suggest unabiding support for Mr. Putin and his agenda across Russia, the situation is more complex than the numbers convey. The leader of one opposition research group in Moscow has argued that backing for Mr. Putin is actually far more brittle than simple approval numbers suggest.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Potemkin Organizations: Ukraine, Levada, Mr Locations: Russia, Moscow

His most beloved crooner sang a nationalistic ballad with an appeal to Russians: “The Motherland is calling. Don’t let her down.”His favorite band belted out a moody song about wartime sacrifice. And then he took the stage, under a banner celebrating the 10th anniversary of Crimea’s seizure from Ukraine, to remind thousands of Russians gathered on Red Square that his fight to add territory to Russia wasn’t over. President Vladimir V. Putin, a day after declaring victory in a performative election, signaled on Monday that the war against Ukraine would continue to dominate his rule and called for unity in bringing the people of eastern Ukraine “back to their home family.”“We will move on together, hand in hand,” Mr. Putin told the crowd, boasting of a restored railroad line that he said would soon connect to Crimea through territory taken from Ukraine. “And this is precisely what really makes us stronger — not words, but deeds.”

Persons: Don’t, ”, Vladimir V, Putin, Mr Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Crimea

☆ Basking in his Russian election win, Putin talks about political nemesis Alexei Navalny's 'sad' death for the first time
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin was upbeat after winning a fifth term in power in Russia's presidential election over the weekend. He chose the moment to make his first public remarks on the death of his political nemesis, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, mentioning his name for the first time in years. Navalny's family and supporters accused Putin of ordering Navalny's death. He also used the moment to make his first public comments on Navalny's death, and mentioning his most vocal critic's name for the first time in public in years. Putin won Russian presidential election with 87.97% of the vote, first official results showed Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny, Putin, Natalia Kolesnikova, —, Laudator Ursula von der Leyen, Bambi, NBC's Keir Simmons, Navalny, Mr Navalny, Navalny's, Maria Pevchikh, airbrushing Organizations: Afp, Getty, Navalny, European Commission, Bavaria Film Studios, NBC, Russian, Moscow Times, Putin's, Ukraine, Reuters, Commission, Anadolu Locations: Russia, Moscow, U.S

☆ Russians Know Putin Will Be Re-Elected, but Many Worry What Comes Next
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( Ivan Nechepurenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Maria and her husband, Aleksandr, are certain that President Vladimir V. Putin will secure a fifth term as Russia’s leader in the presidential election this weekend. Foremost in their minds are fears that Mr. Putin, emboldened by winning a new six-year term, might declare another mobilization for soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Aleksandr, 38, who left Russia shortly after Mr. Putin announced the first mobilization in September 2022 but recently returned, is even considering leaving the country again, his wife said. Many Russians have been worrying about a multitude of issues before the vote, which started on Friday and takes place over three days. Though the Russian authorities have denied that another mobilization for the war is planned, a sense of unease persists.

Persons: Maria, Aleksandr, Vladimir V, Putin, Mr, “, ” Maria Locations: Moscow, Ukraine, Russia

☆ With New Six-Year Term, Putin Cements Hold on Russian Leadership
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( Anton Troianovski | Nanna Heitmann | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Vladimir V. Putin on Sunday extended his rule over Russia until 2030, using a heavily stage-managed presidential election with no real competition to portray overwhelming public support for his domestic dominance and his invasion of Ukraine. Some Russians tried to turn the undemocratic vote into a protest, forming long lines at polling stations at a predetermined time — noon — to register their discontent. At the same time, Ukraine sought to cast its own vote of sorts by firing a volley of exploding drones at Moscow and other targets. But the Kremlin brushed those challenges aside and released results after the polls closed claiming that Mr. Putin had won 87 percent of the vote — an even higher number than in the four previous elections he participated in. Afterward, Mr. Putin took a lengthy, televised victory lap, including a swaggering, after-midnight news conference at which he commented on the death of the imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny for the first time, referring to it as an “unfortunate incident.”

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Mr, Aleksei A, ” Organizations: Sunday Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Moscow

☆ Five Takeaways From Putin’s Orchestrated Win in Russia
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( Neil Macfarquhar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Putin said the vote represented a desire for “internal consolidation” that would allow Russia to “act effectively at the front line” as well as in other spheres, such as the economy. The government was dismissive of a protest organized by Russia’s beleaguered opposition, in which people expressed dissent by flooding polling places at noon. Mr. Putin, 71, will now be president until at least 2030, entering a fifth term in a country whose Constitution ostensibly limits presidents to two. The vote, the first since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, was designed to both create a public mandate for the war and restore Mr. Putin’s image as the embodiment of stability. Still, Russians are somewhat edgy over what changes the vote might bring.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Russia’s, ” Locations: Russia, Ukraine

☆ Long Lines of Russian Voters Signal Discontent With Putin’s Rule
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( Anatoly Kurmanaev | Valerie Hopkins | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Long lines of voters formed outside polling stations in major Russian cities during the presidential election on Sunday, in what opposition figures portrayed as a striking protest against a rubber-stamp process that is certain to keep Vladimir V. Putin in power. Before he died last month, the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny had called on supporters to go to polling stations at midday on Sunday, the last day of the three-day vote, to express dissatisfaction with Mr. Putin, who is set to win his fifth presidential term in a vote that lacks real competition. Mr. Navalny’s team, which is continuing his work, and other opposition movements reiterated calls for the protest in the weeks leading up to the vote. Simply appearing at the polling station, for an initiative known as Noon Against Putin, they said, was the only safe way to express discontent in a country that has drastically escalated repression since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. The opposition leaders said showing solidarity with like-minded citizens by mere presence was more important than what the voters chose to do with their ballots, because the election lacked real choice.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Aleksei A, Navalny, Mr, Navalny’s Locations: Russian, Ukraine

“All of us decent people are hostages here.” Like other voters interviewed, she declined to provide her last name, for fear of reprisal. “It is so important to see people who think like you, who don’t agree with what is happening,” she said. More broadly, the muted, purely symbolic form of civil disobedience envisioned by the initiative underscores just how little the Russian opposition can do to influence events in the country amid the pervasive repression. Noon Against Putin has been expected to be particularly large-scale abroad, because dissident voters faced lower risks outside Russia. Ms. Navalnaya was seen standing in a long line outside the Russian Embassy in Berlin on Sunday afternoon.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Aleksei A, Navalny, Mr, Navalny’s, ”, Lena, Noon, Yulia Navalnaya, “, ” Leonid Volkov, Nanna Heitmann, Volkov, Kristina, Navalnaya, Valerie Hopkins, Tomas Dapkus, Anton Troianovski Organizations: Sunday, The New York Times, YouTube, Russian Embassy Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Moscow, Russia, Lithuania, Lane, Berlin, Riga, Latvia

☆ Putin Breaks Silence on Navalny’s Death, Calling It an ‘Unfortunate Incident’
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-17 | by ( Anton Troianovski | More About Anton Troianovski | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Vladimir V. Putin described the death of the imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny as an “unfortunate incident” and claimed he had been ready to release him in exchange for Russian prisoners held in the West. Mr. Putin, in a news conference after Russia’s presidential election, said that “some people” had told him before Mr. Navalny’s death “that there was an idea to exchange Mr. Navalny for some people held in correctional facilities in Western countries.”“I said, ‘I agree,’” Mr. Putin said. “Just with one condition: ‘We’ll trade him but make sure that he doesn’t come back, let him stay over there.’”He added: “But this happens. That’s life.”The comments, in response to a question from NBC News, were Mr. Putin’s first about Mr. Navalny’s death at a penal colony in the Arctic— and a rare moment, if not the first, when the Russian president uttered Mr. Navalny’s name in public.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Aleksei A, ”, Navalny, “, ‘, ’, Mr, Putin’s, Navalny’s Organizations: NBC News Locations: West, Russian

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