MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/. The Russian Civic Chamber’s volunteers revealed about 7,000 false reports about the parliamentary elections during the first day of voting, they were refuted promptly, head of the working group for public monitoring of remote electronic voting of the Civic Chamber’s Coordinating Council Alexander Malkevich told a briefing on Saturday.
He noted that, as of Thursday, volunteers "revealed 5,000 fakes about the elections from January to September." "Yesterday, we identified almost 7,000 fake messages," he said.
Malkevich added that, thanks to video surveillance and journalists’ work, the speed of response had increased, and such messages were refuted without delay.
He stressed that St. Petersburg, Moscow, the Far Eastern regions, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk ranked first in the number of fakes. "At the same time, some of these reports are utter nonsense," he said, citing information that, at some polling stations, people did not wear face masks.
For his part, Chairman of the Civic Chamber’s Coordinating Council for Public Control over Voting Maxim Grigoriev said that a vast number of fakes were related to Crimea. "Indeed, there are many cases of incorrect interpretations, <…>, which are completely detached from reality," he noted.
Elections to the 8th Russian State Duma (lower house) are scheduled for September 19, 2021, known as Single Voting Day. The balloting process spans across three days - September 17, 18, and 19. In addition to the State Duma elections, voters cast ballots for the heads of nine Russian regions (in another three regions local legislatures elect top executive officials) and in elections to 39 regional parliaments.