The Russians went, Sunday, September 19, to the polls for the final day of the legislative elections, in which the movement of the opponent Alexeï Navalny was dismissed and his voting instructions removed under pressure from the authorities.
This election should, unsurprisingly, be won by the ruling United Russia party – despite its unpopularity – after months of repression that have ruled out opponents of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, from these elections which were held. from Friday to Sunday, and partly online.
Anti-corruption activist and bête noire of the Kremlin, Alexeï Navalny, 45, was jailed in January for a fraud case he considers political. Its organizations have been banned for “Extremism” and many of its cadres fled the country under judicial pressure.
“People hardly have a choice, there are few parties. In fact, you can’t choose between anything ”, regretted to Agence France-Presse (AFP) Vladimir Zakharov, a 43-year-old businessman who came to vote on Saturday in Saint Petersburg.
Some 108 million Russians are being called to the polls until 7 p.m. Paris time on Sunday, with initial estimates expected late in the evening. The ballot aims to renew the 450 terms of deputies of the Duma, the lower house of Parliament, currently dominated by United Russia. Local and regional elections also take place.
According to the list of violations kept by the specialist NGO Golos, nearly 3,500 irregularities were reported Sunday morning after more than two days of voting, including ballot stuffing and pressure to vote.
Pressure from the authorities on Internet players
Almost no candidate opposed to Putin having been authorized to run for the legislative elections, Mr. Navalny’s supporters had set up a so-called “smart vote” strategy intended to support the candidate – often Communist – best placed to hinder the candidate. power. In the past, this tactic had met with some success, especially during elections in Moscow in 2019, and the authorities have been working for months to block all access to these voting instructions, in particular putting pressure on the actors of the Internet.
Google and Apple finally folded on Friday, agreeing to remove Alexeï Navalny’s “smart vote” mobile application from their respective stores. Supporters of the latter immediately accused the two American firms of “Give in to the blackmail of the Kremlin”. The Telegram messaging system, very popular in Russia, also removed voting instructions from its platform on Saturday.
Google also blocked Sunday morning access to other content containing these electoral instructions: two videos published on YouTube and two lists published on Google Docs, its word processing service. Mr Navalny’s team responded by posting a similar new video on YouTube and copies of the listings on Google Docs. On Twitter, she also gives instructions to download a virtual private network to avoid blockages.
Leonid Volkov, a close associate of Navalny, admitted on Saturday that the Kremlin had obtained a “Huge victory” on the major Internet companies, calling in spite of everything the supporters of the opposition to mobilize in this “Battle between David and Goliath”.
The Russian electoral commission assured on Saturday that it had suffered cyber attacks organized from abroad and said it expected new attempts on Sunday.
Most of the opposition having been banned from the ballot, United Russia should win, despite its popularity rating (less than 30%), according to the state polling center VTsIOM. The other parties represented in the Duma (communists, nationalists and centrists) are, on the whole, in line with President Putin, the latter remaining popular.