March 19, 2024

Election Rebellion: Paint It Green!


Election Rebellion: Paint It Green!
Ballots stained with green paint in Borisoglebsk, Voronezh Oblast. Bloknot Voronezh, Telegram.

On March 15, Russia's 2024 presidential elections were opened to the public. But some voters voiced their displeasure by pouring bright green dye, known as zelyonka, and ink into ballot boxes. Protesters could face fines of up to R80,000 ($865) and up to five years in prison.

Security footage from a Moscow school shows a young woman pouring zelyonka into a ballot box. Allegedly, the woman then began screaming pro-Ukrainian slogans and talking with someone over the phone. Baza suspects the woman was acting under instructions. The investigative committee of Moscow announced it had opened a criminal case against a woman for impeding the electoral process.  

In Borisoglebsk, Voronezh Oblast, there were two separate instances of residents staining ballots with green ink. In one instance, police stopped a woman, and the ballot boxes were sealed. Voronezh police confirmed they had opened criminal cases against two voters, aged 58 and 66.

Ink pourers were also reported in Azov, Rostov Oblast, and in Karachay-Cherkessia. The deputy chairman of the Central Election Commission, Nikolay Bulayev, claimed, "It is clear [the ink pourers] were promised money and rewards." Bulayev also called for strengthening security around ballot boxes.

Zelyonka holds a special place in Russian collective memory. This antiseptic with a characteristic bright green color was originally used to treat wounds. However it garnered a new meaning after Russian opposition leaders were attacked with zelyonka mixed with toxic substances. The late Aleksei Navalny was among the victims of these attacks. The anti-corruption activist notably embraced his green skin as a campaign strategy, with many Russians uploading pictures covered in grass-colored paint in solidarity.

The incumbent president and possible mastermind of the murder of Navalny, Vladimir Putin, is expected to win this election cycle, allowing him to stay in power until at least 2030.

You Might Also Like

Sudden Death
  • February 18, 2024

Sudden Death

Alexei Navalny’s death was entirely expected, and completely unacceptable.
An Anti-War Art Awakening
  • December 18, 2023

An Anti-War Art Awakening

Anonymous artist Zless creates anti-war art that juxtaposes traditional Russian symbols and the horrors of the invasion of Ukraine.
Zelyonka: It Ain't Easy Being Green
  • July 11, 2021

Zelyonka: It Ain't Easy Being Green

Brilliant Green Dye or "Zelyonka," as it is known in Russia, has been a popular antiseptic and mild chemical weapon in the country for years. How is it possible for one thing to have two such varied uses? 
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955