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In the morning we reported on the start of the new day of voting. A lot has happened since then: mass violations are being recorded in various cities, observers are being expelled, and fights have broken out at polling stations.
Raids, threats, and violence
- In Moscow, observers were banned from filming. They have been threatened with criminal prosecution, even though filming at polling stations is completely legal.
- In St Petersburg, at one polling station, the head of the commission hit a female observer on the hand because his face was caught on camera.
- In Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, candidate Ruslan Zinatullin from “Yabloko” was attacked. This happened right at a polling station. The attacker turned out to be Alfred Valiev, a candidate from “Communists of Russia.” Police officers present tried to pull the communist away, but he broke free.
- In Chechnya, law enforcement officers are carrying out raids on residential buildings. Ramzan Kadyrov ordered “increased inspections” ahead of the election.
Arrest
- In Novorossiysk, a port city on the Black Sea, Dzhemali Gogoli, a member of the territorial election commission from the Communist Party (KPRF), was arrested for 10 days. He said it was over a certain “two-year-old case.” According to the investigators, in December 2024 he attacked a woman. Gogoli believes his prosecution is political, as observers at local polling stations discovered widespread violations—non-operational cameras and ballot papers being issued without signatures.
Other pressure
- At least 1,175 Communist Party (KPRF) observers have not been allowed to work since the elections began. The reasons given included paperwork errors, submitting documents “to the wrong office,” or “a non-working flash drive.”
- In Tobolsk, an old Siberian city, police were called in about the observers. Officers arrived with dogs and searched the entire polling station. One observer suggested the visit was connected to his complaint to the local precinct commission. Another observer was given an ultimatum: either “keep quiet” or be removed from the station.
- In Dolgoprudny, a suburban town near Moscow, precinct commission members stuck paper tape on the floor around an observer, forbidding them to leave and record video outside that square.
- In Perm, a major city in the Urals, observer Alexei Ogloblin was written up under an article on interfering with the work of the election commission. Precinct commission members explained that he “showed unjustified interest in everything happening at the election.”