Yesterday, 21 January 2024, I and Galina took part in an anti-Putin rally in Hamburg.
The organisers of the rally gave me the opportunity to speak.
Here is the full text of the speech:
"Dear compatriots, dear German friends!
Today we have gathered for a rally called: "Russia without Putin!", in my opinion, our rally would be better suited to the slogan: "Planet without Putin!", which I am sure is ready to support not millions, but billions of inhabitants of our fragile planet!
But even a totalitarian regime, which today is Putin's regime, has, I will say as a doctor, "critical days" when it becomes more vulnerable.
For the ruling regime in Russia such days will be 15, 16 and 17 March.
These are the days of the so-called voting in the presidential election.
The Russian authorities are preparing for these "critical days":
- The flywheel of repression is intensifying. Today there are about 1,500 political prisoners in Russian prisons, almost three thousand administrative protocols on "discrediting" the army have been drawn up over the past year, confiscation of property from citizens convicted for so-called "fakes" and other political articles, mandatory consular registration of Russians abroad and other repressive actions are planned;
- the CEC artificially cuts off undesirable candidates at the stage of accepting documents and collecting signatures, self-nominated candidates and candidates from non-parliamentary parties are denied access to free campaigning in the media;
- instead of a single day of voting there will be three days, partial electronic voting will be introduced, polling stations abroad in so-called "unfriendly" countries will be closed, and the possibility of independent control over elections will be eliminated.
But even after this, Putin's regime does not feel safe. The regime is afraid of anti-war voters, and there are between 14 and 22 million or 16 to 20 per cent of them in Russia.
These Russians are waiting for opposition leaders to propose safe but effective actions in the upcoming elections.
This is evidenced not only by sociological surveys, but also by the queues at the headquarters of the anti-war candidate Nadezhdin in major cities.
I am forced to state bitterly that the Russian opposition has once again confirmed the thesis that there are many good Russians, but they do not know how to unite.
The goal is to do everything to make Putin get as few votes as possible, so vote for anyone but Putin.
I consider this goal to be erroneous, and the call to vote for candidates from the CPRF, LDPR, and New People to be immoral.
All of them supported the military aggression against Ukraine and the adoption of all repressive laws.
I believe that the worthy goal of the opposition should be to ensure that the anti-war agenda gains as many votes as possible.
The possibilities of falsification even in such elections as in Russia are not unlimited.
Experts estimate that in the 2018 elections, the real turnout was 63 million voters, with an additional 10 million attributed to Putin.
If 65 million turnout in this year's election, and 18 million of them anti-war, the percentage will be almost 28.
Even if 25 million votes are attributed to Putin, the anti-war candidate will gain 20 per cent, which is very serious for the internal and external political situation.
If the anti-war candidate, Nadezhdin, is registered, then we should call to vote for him.
If Nadezhdin is not allowed to vote, we should call for the ballots to be invalidated. These ballots are counted in the vote totals and will negatively affect Putin's vote percentage.
In the last election, the number of invalid ballots was just over 1%, but if there are 20%!
It will be clear to everyone whose votes they are.
Boycotting the elections, as well as voting on 15 and 16 March will facilitate fraud!
The situation is such that the collapse of Putin's regime largely depends on the outcome of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
During the Hitler years, the German writer Friedrich Reck-Mallecheven, who died in Dachau, wrote: "One must love a country so much to wish it defeat". I think this is exactly our case.
I would not like to end my speech on a minor note, so I would like to quote this writer once again: "Gloomy forecasts do not always come true, the future may turn out to be much brighter".
So let us all say together:
Russia without Putin! Yes!
A planet without Putin! Yes!
Freedom for all political prisoners! Yes.
Alexander Goncharenko, doctor, Russian politician and human rights activist