16/08/2026
A little more about the “elections”:
Just a reminder that we’re talking specifically about the “elections” at the Russian embassy in the Netherlands, not about how people inside Russia will vote.
Why not repeat “Noon Against Putin” and line up again? Wouldn’t that be an anti-war protest queue?
It wouldn’t be an anti-war protest queue. It would be a queue of people who came to vote for parties that support the war, have voted for repressive laws, and merely create the illusion of legitimacy for the “elections” and the “opposition.” Some of these parties are proxies for United Russia, and all of them serve the Putin regime.
But isn’t that “protest voting”?
Let’s call things what they are: in the Netherlands, this will not look like a protest. It will look like a queue of Russian citizens who obediently came to the embassy to vote for the war and the system. There are no anti-war parties on the ballot, and by coming to the elections, you will contribute to voter turnout and give the authorities an additional opportunity to manipulate the results. This is not a protest. It is support for the legitimacy of the “elections.”
Moreover, it also discredits the queue from 2024. Let’s remember that Davankov received the highest percentage in the Netherlands that year. At the time, he presented himself as “anti-war,” but later turned out to be a spoiler candidate and supported the war almost immediately after the election.
So what should we do? How can we protest?
A protest against the war and Putin’s system means demonstrating outside the embassy in support of Ukraine. If nobody comes to the “elections” while the demonstration is large, it will be impossible to interpret that in any other way.
There are also other forms of protest that are accessible to almost everyone:
▫️ Help Ukraine - for now, the only force actually fighting the Putin regime is the Ukrainian army. There are plenty of organizations you can donate money to in order to support the Ukrainian military.
▫️ Counter Russian influence - there are still pro-Russian organizations in the Netherlands (KSORS is a prominent example) that disseminate Kremlin propaganda.
▫️ Research how Russia circumvents sanctions
