The Russian opposition urges those opposed to Putin to come to the ballot box tomorrow, Sunday at noon. The Russian authorities are trying to prevent the rapture.
Voting continues in Russia in the three-day demonstration presidential election. The sneaky work at the polling stations that started yesterday continued today as well.
Independent site Meduza tells, that yesterday the authorities started to investigate at least 15 criminal cases related to “disrupting the operation of election boards”. Two of them are in Moscow and one in St. Petersburg.
Disinfectant as a political weapon
This morning in the center of Yekaterinburg was arrested a woman carrying a bottle of dye. Yesterday, the same dye was poured into the ballot box at several polling stations.
It is the so-called brilliant green – an organic dye whose alcohol solution is widely used as a disinfectant in Russia. You can get it at the pharmacy for 20 cents a bottle.
In the 2010s, as its name suggests, the green substance was harnessed to defame political opponents. For example, in 2017, brilliant green was poured by an opposition politician who died in February To Alexei Navalny on. The substance got into Navalny’s eye and he was in danger of going blind. A corneal ulcer required surgery, which was performed in Spain.
According to the Verstka website, the election commissions are not going to invalidate the election results in the places where dye was spilled. According to the site’s source, only those votes are rejected where “it is not possible to verify the choice due to brilliant green”.
The Duma wants to intervene in sneaky jobs
Other sneaky jobs have been seen at the polling stations both yesterday and today. Voters have set ballots, ballot boxes and voting booths on fire. In St. Petersburg, a woman threw a fuel bottle at a polling station. In Chelyabinsk, a man tried to ignite a banger bomb at the polling station.
In the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, these cases were reacted to by proposing stricter criminal liability. The Russian state-owned company tells about it news agency Tass.
According to Tassi, a member of the Duma Jana Lantratova says that the bill will be completed in a few days. It would increase the maximum penalty to up to eight years in prison. Lantratova is on the Duma committee that investigates “cases of interference by foreign states in Russia’s internal affairs”.
Warnings from authorities and strangers
For tomorrow, the Russian opposition is planning a “Noon against Putin” protest. The idea is that you have to arrive at the polling station at twelve o’clock, which would show how many actually oppose Vladimir Putin power. A protest will also be organized tomorrow at the Russian Embassy in Helsinki.
Among other things, Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya has called on the Russians to participate in the rapture. of The Current Time website the interviewed experts consider the rapture to be “relatively safe” for the participants, as it is difficult for the authorities to prove that a person has arrived at the polling station at noon precisely inspired by the rapture.
However, the Russian authorities are trying to prevent the protest. Moscow Prosecutor’s Office has warnedthat the simultaneous arrival of large masses of people at the polling stations may have consequences.
An activist demanding the return of mobilized Russian soldiers Maria Andreeva has told in his interview that he received a letter from the prosecutor’s office warning against participating in “extremist activities”.
Several Muscovites have told Novaya Gazeta Europe – website that they received Anonymous messages classified as spam, which state that the recipient supports an “extremist organization” and urges them to vote “without queues”.
Russia reports high voter turnout figures
Central Election Commission of Russia published by turnout figures today at 15:00 Moscow time. According to it, 41.79% of citizens have already gone to vote. The highest activity has been on the Chukotka peninsula, 78.54 percent. Of those who chose electronic voting, 82 have already voted, says the board.
At the same time, the independent media reports on suspicious voting figures, for example in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, the Caucasus and Belgorod, which has been the target of gunfire in recent days. Ukrainian news website Ukrainian Pravda reveals strange figures also in the Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
Golos, an independent election monitoring organization tells intending to prove electoral fraud thanks to artificial intelligence. The Revizor, or Inspector, program it developed can analyze surveillance videos recorded at polling stations, and compare official results with the actual number of voters.
According to the organization, the deviations in the presidential elections held six years ago were so large that the official result could not be trusted.