Arrests, bribery, threats
15.09.2021
This is the seventh overview of reports of possible violations of electoral legislation gathered via the 'Map of Violations' by the 'Movement in Defense of Voters' Rights "Golos"' between September 6 and September 12. The Map is a project that collects information about possible electoral violations using the principle of crowdsourcing – observers, voters, members of commissions may report alleged violations witnessed during the electoral campaigning or voting using a submission form on the website or a telephone hotline. Pre-moderated submissions are published on https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/.
In total, from September 6 to 12, 159 messages were received by the Map.
The typology of potential violations is as follows (one message may constitute more than one type of violation):
- Abuse of administrative resource – 71
- Violation of the rules of printed and outdoor agitation – 43
- Pressure from the authorities, coercion, bribery of voters – 29
- Violations of the rules of campaigning in the media – 21
- Violation of the rights of commission members, observers, media – 5
- Threats to one's life, health, or property – 4
- Pressure from law enforcement entities – 2
- Other – 28
Leading areas in the number of cases over the past week:
- Moscow – 23
- Moscow Oblast – 14
- Samara Oblast – 13
- Oryol Oblast – 9
- Rostov Oblast – 7
- Tomsk Oblast – 6
Since the beginning of the election campaign, 945 messages from 72 regions have been published on the 'Map of violations.'
Main trends
The number of received messages has increased comparing to the previous week. Most violations are related to: abuse of administrative resource, violations of the rules of printed and outdoor campaigning, coercion of voters (including cases when voters were pressured to get assigned to a different polling station). Such reports were received from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kirov, Moscow, Samara, Sverdlovsk, Oryol, Orenburg, Omsk, Ulyanovsk, Tomsk, Tula, Tver, Tambov, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Kaluga, Ryazan, Rostov, Vladimir, Voronezh, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Pskov, Nizhny Novgorod, and Yaroslavl oblasts, as well as from the Republics of Komi, Sakha (Yakutia), Udmurtia, Stavropolskiy, Altaiskiy, Primorskiy, and Krasnodarskiy krais, Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous areas.
It is also worth noting that there are more and more cases of impeding the legitimate campaigning of candidates by law enforcement entities.
Another alarming trend of this week is related to the appearance of messages about impending bribery of voters.
TOP-5 violations of the week
On September 11, in Sterlitamak, police officers detained1Vadim Iskandarov, a candidate for State Duma deputy from Just Russia together with 7 of his campaign staff: 'Today, we came with our own materials to the central square of the city, where the Day of the city was being celebrated, in order to conduct legal pre-election campaign', Vadim Iskandarov told Idel.Realities. 'Literally, five minutes later, police cars arrived and a representative of the Sterlitamak city administration approached. He said that an official event of the United Russia party was going to be held on the square. He demanded that the police remove us.'Iskandarov also noted that the police did not pay any attention to his immunity as a candidate to the State Duma.
All detainees were released after a 3-hour stay at the police station. The police officers made the campaigners of Vadim Iskandarov write reports 'explaining why they were on the square.' Administrative protocols were drawn up for 2 campaigners under Part 1 of Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation ('Disobedience of the requests of a police officer').
After leaving the police department, activist Alina Galeeva published a video of the arrest, which shows how an employee of the Sterlitamak administration (who introduced himself as Ilgiz Yenaliev, the Head of the Department for Interaction with Public Institutions), first states that 'a public event of United Russia is being held on the territory of the Palace of culture from 7 AM to 10 PM, ' and then demands that the activists leave the square. After this, the arrests begin.
'The policemen did not introduce themselves, nor did they show their IDs or say why they were detaining us,' Alina Galeeva told Idel.Realities. 'Once in the police station, we were told that we had violated the federal law on public events. We were demanded to write explanatory reports. On the square were also representatives of the "New People" party. They marched with flags and agitation materials, but no complaints were made against them from the side of the policemen. We were the only ones detained, exactly at the time when the candidate from United Russia Gilmutdinov was supposed to have a speech.'
On August 10, in Rostov-on-Don, Igor Khoroshilov, editor-in-chief of the local newspaper Golos, was detained2 for posting a message about 'Smart Voting'3 in his account on Facebook. Because of the post, the journalist was accused of displaying extremist symbols. The arrest was attended by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Counter-Extremism Department. On the same day, the Proletarsky district court condemned Igor Khoroshilov to 10 days under the 'extremism' article 20.3 of the Administrative Code. A week ago, there was another report4 from this very region about detention of a person who had a poster of the 'Smart Voting' initiative.
In the Komi Republic, the Syktyvkar auto-blogger Alexander Tretyakov offered5 his Instagram followers to earn 500 roubles by voting for a certain candidate. Information about this violation was published in the 'New Republic' group on VKontakte.
Viktor Vorobyov, a member of the Election Commission of Komi Republic with an advisory vote, sent a report to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic about the impending bribery of voters organized by the above-mentioned blogger.
In the Sverdlovsk region, the head of the Beloyarsk city administration, Andrei Gorbov, intimidated and blackmailed6 local residents, claiming he would not spend a rouble for road and boiler repairs if they did not vote for his protégé. Yevgeny Popov, candidate to the Legislative Assembly of the Sverdlovsk region from Just Russia filed a complaint about this case.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported7 that American 'digital giants' are violating Russian law in terms of preparation and conduct of elections to the State Duma: 'On September 10, the US Ambassador in Moscow John Sullivan was summoned to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to meet with the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov. During the conversation, it was emphasized that the Russian party possesses irrefutable evidence of the violation of Russian legislation by the American "digital giants" in terms of preparation and conduct of elections to the Russian State Duma of the Federal Assembly. In this regard, the categorical inadmissibility of interference in the internal affairs of our country was declared.'
'Most likely, this was all about the mobile applications in AppStore and Google Play, where the Russian authorities attempt to block the app "Navalny", which promotes "Smart Voting", and the Anti-Corruption Foundation, considered by the Russian authorities "extremist" and is prohibited,' explains Grigory Melkonyants, Golos Co-Chair.
References:
1 https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/59072
2 https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/59037
3 A protest voting strategy put forward by the team of Alexei Navalny with the aim of depriving the United Russia party of votes in regional and federal elections – REM
4 https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/58783
5 https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/59026
