Jailed Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny has urged his supporters to vote for anyone but Putin in next year’s presidential election.

In an online statement, Navalny urged supporters to spend the campaign period persuading at least 10 other voters to cast ballots for any candidate besides Putin.

Navalny identified Putin’s core base of voters; “pensioners, public sector employees, military, security forces and mobilized people,” as the primary targets of his anti-Putin campaign.

“They should be the first to see: Russia is stirring and voting against Putin,” Navalny noted.

Navalny acknowledged that the results of the 2024 elections “will be rigged” but asked skeptics who planned to skip the ballot to still join his anti-Putin effort.

“You can campaign against [Putin] as well and decide whether to vote or not,” he said.

“Putin views this election as a referendum on approval of his actions. A referendum on approval of the war.” Let’s disrupt his plans and make it happen so that no one on 17 March is interested in the rigged result, but that all of Russia saw and understood: the will of the majority is that Putin must leave.”
Alexei Navalny

Meanwhile, four occupied regions of Ukraine that were “annexed” by the Russian Federation in late 2022 are expected to participate in Russia’s presidential election next year.

Ella Pamfilova, Head of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, said that a decision will be made by December 12, 2023, on whether the four regions, namely Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson will take part in the election.

Pamfilova was quoted as saying, “Having weighed all the pros and cons, we will make such a decision.”

“If we accept it, then the next step will be to adopt the procedure for holding elections there; of course, it will be somewhat different, as the law provides for this, from voting in other constituent entities of the Russian Federation.”
Ella Pamfilova

The Russian Federation claimed to annex Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson from Ukraine in late 2022, despite not fully controlling the territory of any of the regions.

In September 2023, the four occupied regions held elections as part of Russia’s 2023 regional elections.

Occupied Regions’ Potential Participation In Election Hailed

Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-installed head of the Luhansk People’s Republic, which the Russian Federation claims to have annexed, hailed the potential participation of the occupied Ukrainian territory in Russia’s 2014 presidential election.

He noted in a post on Telegram, “The elections will traditionally be held over three days – 15-17 March and these three days are the very time when we can prove to the whole world: we are strong, we are together, we are a united great Russia.”

“Without exaggeration, we can say that the elections on 17 March are a new Donbas spring. Just as Crimea once “returned to its native harbour”, so Donbas returned home with the steel will of its people. For centuries our lands were Russian. And they will always be like this!”
Leonid Pasechnik

He added, “Today we have every opportunity to complete all integration processes in the shortest possible time.”

“We are a full-fledged region of a great country. Pride, confidence, faith in the future – this is what unites all Russians, all of us, today,” he said.