MOSCOW, September 12. /TASS/. Elections in Russian regions were generally held in a calm atmosphere, yet provocations and cases of fake news did emerge, but they did not affect the course of the electoral process, a report published on the website of the Independent Public Monitoring (IPM) association on Sunday night said.

"The Independent Public Monitoring association experts from Udmurtia, the Kaliningrad, Sverdlovsk, Yaroslavl, Kirov and Tomsk Regions, as well as the Krasnodar Region summarized the results of the comprehensive election monitoring: at an overwhelming number of polling stations, the balloting took place in a calm and, in some places, festive atmosphere. However, in some cases, there were documented provocations and cases of fake news," the report stressed.

Experts note that "all attempts to destabilize the elections have failed," and all situations were put under control in time. However, there were some information slips-ups. For example, the Udmurt Republic election commissions received over 800 complaints, most of which turned out to be similar fake news cases. In the Kaliningrad Region, only a few reports of this kind were confirmed. In the Krasnodar Region, the public observation center checked more than 120 complaints. According to Lyubov Popova, who chairs the region's Public Chamber, the number of official complaints to election commissions is small, and all situations were dealt with by government agencies.

"In total, no more than 15,000 reports were received, with no more than 80 being about possible violations. The problem was solved in 23 cases. Appropriate measures were taken by the election commissions," Roman Kolomoytsev, head of the monitoring and expert center Group 32 told TASS. According to him, "the largest number of reports of possible violations came from Moscow and the Krasnodar Region, but they did not seriously change the overall picture." "Everything went according to plan," he stated.

On September 9-11, regional elections were held. Russians voted for 15 top regional officials (14 direct elections, and in Adygea - by a parliament vote), lawmakers for six legislative assemblies, 12 councils of deputies of regional centers, and also local legislators.