No opposition or independent observers are allowed to make the September 17th to 19th vote a real choice, said Khodorkovsky, who lives in exile in Great Britain. It will not be clear how the population really feels about the power apparatus, “because the results of the vote are falsified,” the politician and former oil manager told the Echo Moskwy radio station on Monday.
The scientific director of the independent opinion research institute Levada Center, Lev Gudkow, complained that no poll results could be published. Khodorkovsky said he would not vote himself “because it is pointless”. The 58-year-old had been in a prison camp for many years as an opponent of President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin chief “spits” on the Duma election; He doesn’t care who wins because parliament no longer has any powers. “Putin did not allow a single person to take part in these elections who criticized him,” said Khodorkovsky.
The decisive factor is the year of the next presidential election in 2024, said Khodorkovsky. So far, Putin has left it open whether he will run again. But there is no competitor in sight.
The Kremlin opponent Alexej Navalny, imprisoned in the penal camp, called on Instagram again on Monday for a “smart vote”. Those eligible to vote should therefore vote for other candidates – just not for applicants from the Kremlin Party United Russia. The government wants to defend its absolute majority. Navalny said that with a clever vote it could be possible to remove one or the other “corrupt MP” from the Duma.
At the same time, he complained that his lawyers were denied access to him shortly before the election. Navalny’s team suspects that the power apparatus is trying to prevent further appeals from the opposition from reaching the public. For weeks, the authorities have been intensifying their action against the “smart voting” advertised on the Internet – and are blocking websites en masse.