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00:00 The Kremlin's very keen to have this election put a stamp, a seal of authority if you like,
00:07 on President Putin's actions in Ukraine.
00:10 They very much want this election to be seen as a display of national unity.
00:15 They've spent a lot of money on it.
00:17 There's been a huge budget spent on social media campaigning, big posters in cities across
00:23 Russia.
00:24 And the very fact that these silent protests were called at noon today was seen as a threat,
00:30 even though they're very minor.
00:31 I'm looking at the accounts of those who've been arrested.
00:35 29, for example, in the eastern city of Kazan, which is about 800 kilometers east of Moscow.
00:41 I think just under 20 in Moscow, perhaps half that number in St. Petersburg.
00:47 There haven't been many protests.
00:51 These long lines were seen as really token protests.
00:54 Interestingly enough, there at Navalny's grave where people were laying flowers today, some
00:58 of them were also laying ballot papers with Navalny's name written across them.
01:03 So this is very much a token display of protest against Putin, against an election that the
01:10 Kremlin wanted to see as a monolithic display of national unity.
01:16 But at the same time, as we just saw in the report, the young man saying that I'm coming
01:20 here because there's a special atmosphere.
01:22 So for those who are making that protest, it means they're able to show to the world
01:26 that there are still those in Russia who oppose Vladimir Putin's regime, despite the fact
01:31 that he's likely, very likely, certainly be handed another six year term in office, which
01:37 would make him the longest serving leader of Russia since the time of Catherine the
01:43 Great.
01:44 It may be a token there, because you point out compared to the big protests, but what
01:47 a token that many people would see internationally as a brave move of opposition, especially
01:52 when you're giving your details, the officials will know exactly when you voted, who is voting
01:58 and the fear of reprisals.
02:00 Let me show you and let's show our viewers images from Berlin today.
02:04 And Yunia Navalny, the widow of Alexei Navalny, who arrived in Berlin, she was cheered.
02:12 I think we can take a look at the images by supporters.
02:16 There were hundreds of people gathered round here.
02:18 Let's take a listen.
02:19 YUNIA!
02:20 YUNIA!
02:21 YUNIA!
02:22 YUNIA!
02:23 YUNIA!
02:24 YUNIA!
02:25 YUNIA!
02:26 YUNIA!
02:27 YUNIA!
02:28 YUNIA!
02:29 YUNIA!
02:30 YUNIA!
02:31 YUNIA!
02:32 YUNIA!
02:33 Nick, you've experienced elections before where opposition is suppressed, where Putin
02:37 has grown in strength since then.
02:39 How different does this one feel to you?
02:44 It feels quite different in some ways because if you look at the actual details of the election,
02:49 these have been held across three days.
02:50 They've never done that in Russia before.
02:52 It's almost like the Kremlin is desperate to ensure that the result is in Putin's favour,
02:57 even though they know that's going to be the case.
02:59 And it's interesting to note that these very small protests in relative terms scare the
03:04 Kremlin.
03:05 We have the head of Russia's election commission, Ella Panfilova, saying that those who spoiled
03:11 their ballot papers today are bastards.
03:14 That's the word she used in Russian mythology.
03:17 That is really quite a rabid response to what is in effect a peaceful protest and be a very
03:25 minor protest on the scale of things.
03:27 In previous elections, around previous elections, when I was based in Moscow, there would be
03:31 thousands out on the streets.
03:33 There would be demonstrations.
03:34 The riot police would be out in force.
03:36 There would be hundreds upon hundreds of arrests and people beaten up.
03:39 I've seen young people severely beaten for protesting against what they saw as rigged
03:45 elections in the past.
03:47 So the degree to which protest and freedom of speech has been completely quashed in Russia
03:54 is pretty much evident today.
03:55 But those silent protests still do demonstrate that there is a strain in Russian society
04:01 to this day, which is very much opposed to Putin.
04:04 Because that flame of hope, which Navalny's widow Yulia, there we just saw her in Berlin
04:09 today, wants to keep alive.