An analyst who reported a record ballot stuffing at the presidential election has been accused of slander

A criminal case has been opened against electoral analyst and programmer Ivan Shukshin from Gelendzhik, a seaside city in southern Russia, under the article on defamation (Part 2, Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code). He announced this himself.

It was previously unknown what exactly Shukshin was being charged with.

According to materials published by the analyst, the case was initiated on 21 April 2024 and is being investigated by the Second Department for Major Cases of the Investigative Committee’s Directorate for Krasnodar Krai.

The case was opened after a request to the Investigative Committee by First Deputy Prosecutor General Anatoly Razinkin.

According to the investigation, Shukshin defamed “individually unspecified members of election commissions at various levels” in two of his articles published on the 'Golos' movement website.

The articles in question are “Fantastic scumbags and how they remove observers” and “The CEC helped falsify and will help delegitimise as well”. These were published on 10 September and 19 December 2023. The first recounted how observers at a polling station in Gelendzhik faced pressure and obstacles to their work. The second article, ahead of the 2024 presidential election, described the types of fraud permitted by the current voting procedures according to Shukshin.

The analyst pointed out that the Investigative Committee had begun its inquiry into him as early as 22 March. That is, only four days after his article was published with estimates of the level of fraud in the 2024 presidential election. In the piece, he concluded that 22 million votes for Vladimir Putin could have been ballot stuffing.

“The article attracted significant media attention both within Russia and in other European countries. On 20 March, I gave comments to Swedish radio, and on 22 March there was an interview with Fishman on Dozhd TV. So, the Krasnodar Investigative Committee picked up the case precisely during days of public focus on the fraud issue, while I was giving interviews to the media,” writes Shukshin.

He now lives abroad. In November, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs put the analyst on the wanted list.

Shukshin said that in February, an investigator called him to ask about his whereabouts and invited him to return to Russia.