Navalny Killing Politicized Wives of the Mobilized who Seek Return of Their Men from Ukraine and Led Them to Call for Voting Against Putin

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 16 – The wives of those Russians mobilized to fight in Ukraine and who have sought the return of their husbands have urged those who agree with them to vote against Putin because they have concluded that their husbands will only return when the war ends and the war will end only when Putin goes, activists of the Bring Them Home movement say.

            Until the murder of Aleksey Navalny, the movement was explicitly non-political: it called for the return of their men but did not suggest that such a goal could be achieved only by a change in the leadership in the Kremlin. But Putin’s murder of Aleksey Navalny politicized the movement (holod.media/2024/03/15/vpervye-protiv-putina/).

            While not all the group is united on that approach, most are, although members say that they are divided as to whether they should not vote at all, vote for a Putin opponent, or destroy their ballots, with some fearing that there will be reprisals in all cases but believing that they now have no choice but to act.

            Holod media interviewed three of the activists in the group who said that they now recognize that only if Putin leaves the Kremlin will they have a chance to have their husbands return home and peace restored; and they outlined plans for expanding their online presence to bring more Russians to their point of view.