Russia elects a new parliament. But how little the Duma election deserved this designation is shown by countless manipulations. They are supposed to secure an absolute majority for Vladimir Putin.
The third and last day of the Duma elections will begin on Sunday in Russia. The results are a long way from being announced, but it is already clear that the level of manipulation reached new dimensions with this election. The MPs of the ruling party “United Russia” are fighting to stay in power without any scruples or wits. Any means is right.
And so reports of unrestrained counterfeiting come from every corner of the vast country. In Saint Petersburg, a woman was caught trying to smuggle a pile of filled out ballot papers into a polling station. When the police transported the caught lady to the station, she was accompanied by none other than the chairwoman of the electoral commission of the relevant district – the one who was supposed to control and guarantee the legitimacy of the election.
In the republic of Bashkiria, a so far unidentified man gave instructions to the employees of a polling station there as to which election results they should enter in the documents. “In the files everyone put the numbers that I gave you in order,” says the stranger in a telephone conversation that was recorded by the staff and finally leaked. “It doesn’t matter what was counted. There will be no discussion about it!” He clarifies. The staff laugh at the recording, but confirm that they have entered everything exactly as they were ordered to.
“We have agreements with the police”
There the head of the city administration of the city of Shuja apparently gave instructions to an employee of the electoral commission on how the election results should be manipulated. “We’ll turn off the cameras for you in the morning. The policeman will be shown outside. What else do you need?” The employee then complained about election observers who apparently did not want to participate in the manipulation. And about police officers who didn’t understand how it worked. “We have agreements with the police. How long do you have to explain it to them?”
Stacks of fake ballot papers end up in the polls
In the Kemerovo region, after the closing of the polling station, they were stuffing whole stacks of ballot papers into the security bags provided for the documents handed in. When one of the women notices that they are being filmed, she hides under the table.
Far from being an isolated case in Kemerovo. In another polling station, cameras fixed a woman trying to shield the ballot box while someone was throwing ballot papers into it.
One of the highest voter turnout rates has so far been reported from the Kemerovo region. According to the central electoral commission, almost 47 percent of those eligible to vote should have cast their vote within the first two days. “Coincidence? I don’t think so!” As Dmitri Kisselev, one of Putin’s favorite propagandists, would say. A quote he’s now famous and infamous for.
Countless choice manipulations
The list of manipulations discovered, leaked or accidentally observed is almost endless. The number of these videos was hardly manageable. Ballot papers are thrown on one of them. On the other hand, citizens find that they have already been voted on. Still others show someone walking from one polling station to another, casting ballots everywhere.
The independent election observation organization Golos also published numerous videos on which hundreds of uniformed workers and presumably entire workforces from state-owned companies can be seen in the polling stations. The pictures of the long queues were explained by the fact that on Friday after the start of the three-day parliamentary election, the civil servants were asked to cast their votes by around noon. However, the vote was set for three days for the first time on the grounds that this was necessary in times of the corona pandemic in order to maintain social distance. Critics suggest that the longer choice should make manipulation easier. In the run-up, numerous statements emerged that state employees would be forced to vote for “United Russia” – with the threat of dismissals.
None other than Vladimir Putin paved the way for all the manipulations. “United Russia” forms its power base. He needs a majority in the Duma – come what may. The central electoral commission is under full control of the Kremlin. Independent international election observers were de facto not allowed.
For months, the Kremlin also worked to make any opposition impossible. The only notable opponent, Alexei Navalny, is in prison. Its organizations have been declared extremist. The Russian judiciary put the opposition organizations on a list of terrorist groups such as al Qaeda or the so-called Islamic State. Their activity is now banned on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Google and Apple kiss from Vladimir Putin
As if that weren’t enough, the Kremlin continued to crack down on Navalny. On Saturday, Google and Youtube removed videos from his team that contained the names of candidates proposed by the opposition as voting recommendations.
Navalny’s team had called for a “smart vote” on voters to break the Kremlin party’s monopoly on power. The activists gave specific names of candidates from other parties to vote for. The Russian authorities had criticized this as meddling in the election and stressed that agitation during the vote was forbidden.
The Internet giant Google and Apple had already removed Navalny’s apps from their Russian stores on Friday. Telegram founder Pawel Durow also announced on Saturday that he had blocked the bots for Navalny’s electoral system. The opponents of the Kremlin expressed their disappointment that the Internet giants cuddled up to the Russian authorities. In Russia, many websites with content critical of the government are blocked.
Putin needs an absolute majority
The last polling stations close at 8 p.m. local time in Kaliningrad. After that, the publication of the first results is expected, for example from the online voting, which was organized for the first time on a large scale. Most recently, “United Russia” was just 27 percent in surveys. But Putin needs an absolute majority. And he will get it.
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