BELGRADE, Serbia — Thousands of Russians lined up at the Russian Embassy school on Sunday for Noon Against Putin, a protest aimed at showing the scale of resistance to the Russian president in an election he had no chance of losing.

The line, stretching over a kilometer, formed a ring around the school, prompting one voter in the crowd to liken it to the Ouroboros, the snake eating itself. Observers said the line in Belgrade was one of the largest turnouts worldwide during Sunday's event.

Around half of those The Moscow Times spoke to were registered to vote, and the other half had come simply to show solidarity for the Noon Against Putin movement, which gained momentum in Serbia in the run-up to the election.

Among them were Pyotr, Alexei, Tanya and Nastya, a group of young Russian professionals in their late 20s living in Belgrade.

None of them believed the vote would change anything, but said “It’s better than doing nothing.”

“It’s for the self-confidence of everyone here. To show the world that there are good people from Russia, to show solidarity to ourselves and each other, to break the spiral of silence, and to show the rest of the world and especially the EU that the Russian anti-war opposition parties need global support,” said Pyotr. “We can’t smash Putin alone.”

He added that he was sending videos of himself in the line to family members still in Russia who support the regime to convince them that the opposition movement is strong.

“The vote will, of course, be rigged.
But crowds at the polling stations cannot be rigged.”

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