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Thousands of Russians join Navalny-inspired ‘noon against Putin’ election protest
© Reuters. Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died in a prison camp, stands in a queue outside the Russian Embassy on the final day of the presidential election in Russia, in Berlin, Germany, March 17, 2024. REUTERS/Anneg
By Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Thousands of people turned up at polling stations in Russia and capitals across the world on Sunday to take part in what the anti-Kremlin opposition said was a peaceful but symbolic protest against the re-election of President Vladimir Putin.
In an action called “noon against Putin”, Russians who oppose the veteran Kremlin leader went to their local polling station at midday to either spoil their ballot paper or to vote for one of the three candidates standing against Putin, who is widely expected to win by a landslide.
Others had vowed to write the name of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died last month in an Arctic prison, on their voting slip and some visited Navalny’s grave in Moscow to symbolically cast their vote for him.
Navalny’s allies broadcast videos on YouTube of lines of people queuing up at different polling stations across Russia at midday who they said were there to peacefully protest.
Navalny had endorsed the “Noon against Putin” plan in a message on social media facilitated by his lawyers before he died. The independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper called the planned action “Navalny’s political testament”.
“There is very little hope but if you can do something (like this) you should do it. There is nothing left of democracy,” one young woman, who did not give her name and whose face was blurred out by Navalny’s team, said at one polling station.
Another young woman at a different polling station, whose identity had been disguised in the same way, said she had voted for the “least dubious” of the three candidates running against Putin.
A male student voting in Moscow told Navalny’s channel that people like him who disagreed with the current system needed to go on living their lives regardless.
“History has shown that changes occur at the most unexpected of times,” he said.
Despite the protesters – who represent a small fraction of Russia’s 114 million voters – Putin is poised to tighten his grip on power in the election that is certain to deliver him a big victory.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova questioned if all those voting at foreign embassies were opponents of Putin and accused Western media of disseminating propaganda about the events.
“Russian citizens did not come to the rallies and performances that unfriendly regimes and their paid information services are trying to present,” Zakharova said.
“They came to cast their vote. Who they voted for and how they voted is their free choice. But the fact that they rejected the appeals of the marginalised is obvious to everyone.”
PROTEST
The Kremlin casts Navalny’s political allies – most of whom are based outside Russia – as dangerous extremists out to destabilise the country on behalf of the West. It says Putin enjoys overwhelming support among ordinary Russians, pointing to opinion polls which put his approval rating above 80%.
With Russia’s vast landmass stretching across 11 time zones, protest voters were scattered rather than concentrated into a single mass, making it hard to estimate how many people turned up for the protest event.
The size of the queues at each polling station shown on Navalny’s channel ranged from a few dozen people to what looked like several hundred people.
Reuters journalists saw a slight increase in the flow of voters, especially younger people, at noon at some polling stations in Moscow and Yekaterinburg, with queues of several hundred people, and in some places even thousands.
Some said they were protesting though there were few outward signs to distinguish them from ordinary voters.
Leonid Volkov, an exiled Navalny aide who was attacked with a hammer last week in Vilnius, estimated hundreds of thousands of people had come out to polling stations in Moscow, St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and other cities.
Reuters could not independently verify that estimate.
At polling stations at Russian diplomatic missions in Australia, Japan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Germany, Britain, hundreds of Russians stood in line at noon.
In Berlin, Yulia, Navalny’s widow, showed up at the Russian embassy to take part in the protest event there along with Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesperson. Other Russians present clapped and chanted her name.
Not all of the Russians who came to vote appeared to be opponents. In London, one man queuing to vote was wearing a top that read ‘Jesus is my saviour. Putin is my president’.
Others were registering a protest.
“We haven’t been heard for past 30 years. Nobody listened to us. We moved, we emigrated, and even here, far away from Russia, we feel the consequences of not us not being heard,” voter Natalia Cherednikova said in London.
“This year is so important just to be there for ourselves, even though we all (are) …fatalistic in terms of the meaning of it and that nobody really cares. It’s just for ourselves that we’ve been here. We have voted. We showed up.”
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By Alden Bentley, Samuel Indyk and Rae Wee
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -Wall Street topped off a global share rally in thin trade on Thursday as markets prepared for early Christmas Eve closes, while the dollar was buoyed by firmer Treasury yields and speculation that the Federal Reserve would slow its easing in 2025.
The was 0.47% higher in late morning trade, the rose 0.73% and the rose 0.99%.
U.S. stock trading wraps up at 1:00 p.m. EDT/1800 GMT, and the bond market closes at 2:00 p.m. Most financial centers around the world are closed on Wednesday for Christmas. The U.S. reopens on Thursday, while many financial centers have a second day off.
“Meagre news and data flow should keep the focus on a more hawkish Fed,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe went up more than half a percent. The pan-European index rose 0.18%. 100 rose 0.19% and 40 rose 0.14%. German stocks were closed for the Christmas holiday.
In Asia, Chinese stocks rose after sources told Reuters that Beijing planned to issue a record amount of special treasury bonds next year as it ramps up fiscal stimulus to revive a faltering economy.
The blue-chip index and both ended 1.3% higher. Hong Kong’s advanced 1.1%.
The news came shortly after China’s finance ministry said authorities would ramp up fiscal support for consumption next year by raising pensions and medical insurance subsidies for residents, as well as expanding consumer goods trade-ins.
Still, investors remain cautious on the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy, particularly as it faces the threat of hefty tariffs from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
Elsewhere, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.37%.
FED FOCUS
Investors are taking direction from last week’s 25 basis point Fed interest rate cut, its signals on the strength of the economy and its slow progress bringing inflation down to its 2% target. Markets are now pricing in about 35 basis points of easing for 2025, implying one quarter-point rate cut and around a 40% chance of a second.
U.S. Treasury yields pared gains after the Treasury saw solid demand for a $70 billion sale of five-year notes, but remained higher on the day. The two-year Treasury yield, which is sensitive to changes in Fed rate expectations, was up 0.9 bp at 4.359%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose 2.6 bp to 4.625%, reaching a seven-month high at 4.629%. [US/]
“Like markets, the Fed will need to consider U.S. policies on tariffs and immigration in its inflation and growth outlook. We believe the subtle slowing in the U.S. labor market will still be the Fed’s paramount concern,” said analysts at Citi Wealth.
“While always uncertain, our base case expectation for a 3.75% policy rate is unchanged. It’s a far cry from the 1.7% U.S. policy rate average of the past 20 years.”
The Fed’s cut was the third one this cycle, taking the Fed funds rate to 4.25%-4.5%.
Ahead of Trump’s return to the White House in January, global central banks have urged caution over their rate paths due to uncertainty on how his planned tariffs, lower taxes and immigration curbs might affect policy.
Data on Monday showed U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly weakened in December as the post-election euphoria fizzled and concerns about future business conditions emerged.
In currencies, the rose 0.14% hovering near a two-year high hit Monday, having climbed more than 2% in December so far.
The euro eased 0.15% to $1.0389, while the yen languished near last week’s five-month low, trading at 157.35 per dollar.
Japan’s Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato on Tuesday reiterated Tokyo’s discomfort with excessive foreign exchange moves and put speculators on notice that authorities are ready to act to stabilise a faltering yen.
rose 0.13% to $2,616.26 an ounce, having risen about 27% this year, heading for its biggest yearly gain since 2010.
rose 1.56% to $70.32 a barrel and rose to $73.73 per barrel, up 1.51% on the day. [O/R]
By David French
(Reuters) -Wall Street’s main indexes all ended higher on Tuesday, with gains in megacap and growth stocks bolstering benchmarks in a truncated Christmas Eve session.
Both the and the scored four straight sessions of gains. For the Dow, the run follows its 10-session skid earlier this month, its longest losing streak since 1974.
The benchmarks closed higher on the first day of a historically strong period called the “Santa Claus rally.” The on average has gained 1.3% in the last five days of December and first two days of January, according to data from the Stock Trader’s Almanac going back to 1969.
With megacap stocks having outsized influence on markets, their performance is often a key driver of indexes. When coupled with reduced trading volumes and few other catalysts, as many investors take time off for the holidays, this is even more pronounced.
All the so-called Magnificent Seven megacap technology stocks climbed on Tuesday, led by Tesla (NASDAQ:).
The automaker’s rise helped push consumer discretionary shares higher, making them the top gaining sector in the S&P.
Elsewhere, chip manufacturers were also buoyant. Broadcom (NASDAQ:) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:) were up, while Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:) climbed a day after losses from losing a court case.
Growth names rose despite U.S. Treasury interest rates remaining elevated – the benchmark 10-year note yielded around 4.61% on Tuesday. Traditionally, higher debt costs crimp growth stocks.
However, the long-term themes around technology development, including advancements in artificial intelligence, overshadow any near-term moves in Treasuries, said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist for Allianz (ETR:) Investment Management.
“This reinforces that view that the sector is going to remain strong, and should be well into the new year,” he said.
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 64.93 points, or 1.09%, to end at 6,039.00 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 264.31 points, or 1.34%, to 20,029.19. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 366.75 points, or 0.85%, to 43,273.70.
Stock markets shut at 1:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday and will be closed for Christmas on Wednesday.
After a stellar run to record highs following the November election, which sparked hopes of pro-business policies under U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Wall Street’s rally hit a bump this month as investors grappled with the prospect of higher interest rates in 2025.
The U.S. Federal Reserve eased borrowing costs for the third time this year last Wednesday, but signaled only two more 25-basis-point reductions next year, down from its September projection of four cuts, as policymakers weigh the possibility of Trump’s policies stoking inflation.
Allianz’s Ripley said the themes which had driven the market higher in the past two months remained intact, and actions by the Fed had not killed the rally.
“Heading into 2025, things are set up with good positioning,” he said, noting factors including economic outlook, consumption in the U.S. and the labor market.
Crypto-related stocks traded higher on Tuesday, including Microstrategy (NASDAQ:), Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:), and MARA Holdings, as the price of bitcoin advanced.
NeueHealth soared after the healthcare provider said New Enterprise Associates, its largest shareholder, and a group of existing investors will take the company private in a $1.3 billion deal.
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