MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. Attempts to undermine the Russian electoral system are continuing, and they will only intensify by the upcoming single voting day in September, Alexander Brod, chairman of the Independent Public Monitoring (IPM) association, said on Tuesday during the presentation of his report ‘Electoral Processes in the Russian Federation: Responses to Challenges’.
"A hybrid war has been unleashed against Russia, in which the countries of the collective West are involved. One of the goals of this war is to undermine the legitimacy of the Russian political system. We have noted serious attempts to plant unreliable information, so-called fakes. Unfortunately, this tendency of misinformation and undermining of the legitimacy of the elections will obviously continue during the upcoming single voting day," Brod said.
He noted that despite the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, the electoral process in Russia remains uninterrupted. "Between January 1 and May 22, the electoral process in the Russian Federation was quite intense. There were two regional referendums and 280 municipal election campaigns. On the whole, during these months the elections took place in a normal mode, we did not register any organizational failures or significant violations that would cast doubt on their results," Brod said.
Deputy Director of the MGPU's Institute of History and Politics Vladimir Shapovalov noted that attempts to discredit the Russian elections were made as early as last year. "This is a deliberate presumption of guilt and election fraud. I mean, talking about non-competitive elections. <...> In 2022 and subsequent years the US will bet on aggressive technologies to discredit the Russian electoral system," the expert believes.
Public control of elections to be intensified
Maxim Grigoriev, Director of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy and Chairman of the Civic Chamber’s Coordinating Council for Public Control over Voting, noted that it is already possible to predict how the September elections in Russia will develop. "Actions will be taken to undermine the Russian electoral system. We are ready for these actions to intensify. The US act of support for Ukraine includes actions against Russia, for which substantial funds are allocated," Grigoriev said.
He recalled that Russia will hold a number of local elections in September, including regional leaders’ election. "The Russian political system and the system of public control over the elections are being prepared to work in the same format as they have done all these years," Grigoriev said.
According to him, the actions of civil society to monitor elections will be intensified. "We have received a proposal from civil society organizations that we intensify the work on the creation of public headquarters for election monitoring. In the near future, we will consider it at our Russia’s Civic Chamber’s Coordinating Council for Public Control over Voting. I think we will actively work here," Grigoriev said.