‘Extremists’, ‘foreign agents’, and the abuse of administrative resource

This is the first overview of reports of possible violations of electoral legislation gathered via the 'Map of Violations' by the Movement for the Defense of Voters' Rights 'Golos' between June 22 and August 1. The Map is a project that collects information about possible electoral violations using the principle of crowdsourcing - observers, voters, members of commissions may report alleged violations witnessed during electoral campaigning or voting using a submission form on the website or a telephone hotline. Pre-moderated submissions are published on https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/.

In Russia, the campaign for the election of State Duma deputies of the VIII convocation is gradually gaining momentum. And although, in general, the campaign is still running quite sluggishly, there have already been several significant scandals - mainly related to the non-admission of opposition politicians to the elections.

On June 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree calling for elections on September 19, 2021, and on June 22, the first message was received on the Map of Violations. In Kostroma Oblast, State Duma candidate Vladimir Mikhailov filed a complaint¹ with the Central Election Commission of Russia that the local election commission did not provide information about the work with campaign materials, which prevents the candidate from producing and distributing his materials.

Between June 22 and August 1, 211 messages were received by the Map of Violations.

Typology of violations

The typology of potential violations is as follows (one message may constitute more than one type of violation):

The abuse of administrative resources - 61
Violations of the rules of print and outdoor campaigning - 44
Influence of law enforcement agencies - 33
Violations of the rules of campaigning in the media - 24
Wrongful refusals of registration and violation of the candidate's rights - 20
Violations while collecting signatures - 15
Pressure from the authorities, coercion, bribery of voters - 13
Violation of the rights of members of the commission, observers, media - 8
Threats to one's life, health, or property - 6

In terms of regional distribution of messages, the leaders are:

Moscow - 45
Krasnodarskiy Krai - 33
St. Petersburg - 17
Moscow Oblast - 15
Samara Oblast - 15
Ivanovo Oblast - 9
Novosibirsk Oblast – 9

'Extremist' and 'foreign agent' candidates

2021 is the year when such terms as 'extremist candidates' and 'foreign agent² candidates' appeared in Russia for the first time.

On May 26, 2021, the State Duma adopted a law³ depriving citizens considered in any way involved in the activities of organizations recognized by the Russian authorities as 'extremist' or 'terrorist' of the right to stand in elections. First of all, this affected the supporters of the politician Alexei Navalny, whose organizations were recognized as 'extremist' on June 9 by the court.

On June 19, the team of Oleg Stepanov's headquarters submitted⁴documents to District Election Commission No. 201 for his nomination as a candidate for the State Duma. After that, the commission had three days to confirm the submission of documents and provide the right to open an electoral bank account.

Stepanov, who previously headed Navalny's headquarters in Moscow, is currently under house arrest due to the so-called 'sanitary case.' ⁵ At the same time, he had the right to submit documents from under arrest. The team waited three days, and on June 22, 10 minutes before the closing of the election commission, they received the answer.

The commission refused to open an account, stating that a person concerning whom the decision to cooperate with an 'extremist' organization came into force loses the right to be elected. However, no such decision was made about Stepanov. Moreover, even the decision regarding organizations associated with Navalny (recognized by the Russian authorities as extremist organizations) has not yet come into effect.

In St. Petersburg on July 27, the election commission decided to annul⁶ the nomination of Irina Fatyanova as a candidate to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg in a single-mandate constituency No. 3. As reported at the meeting, Fatyanova's candidacy was annulled after a check by the Ministry of Justice, during which it was revealed that she belonged to the banned Navalny's headquarters. Six members of the electoral commission voted for her withdrawal from the elections, only one - human rights activist Dinar Idrisov – opposed the decision.

On July 29, the city election commission of Berdsk refused⁷ to register the self-nominated candidate for the 3rd constituency, Kirill Levchenko, in the elections of the Berdsk City Council, based on a letter from the Ministry of Justice in connection with suspicion of involvement in Navalny's headquarters.

In Murmansk, due to suspicion of having COVID-19 disease, Violetta Grudina, the former head of the local Navalny's headquarters, which intended to run for the city council, was forcibly admitted to the hospital. ⁸ Later, Grudina stated⁹ that the hospital administration prevented her from preparing and handing over the documents required for nomination and even went on a hunger strike in protest.

In Nizhny Novgorod, on July 30, the regional commission decided to deny¹⁰ Natalya Rezontova registration as a candidate for the State Duma elections in the 129th constituency on behalf of the Yabloko party. The commission read out a response to a request from the Ministry of Justice and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. The department said that they carried out a check. They believe that Rezontova is related to extremist organizations and cannot enjoy passive suffrage, that is, to participate in elections as a candidate. Natalya Rezontova, just like Oleg Stepanov in Moscow, is being prosecuted under the 'sanitary case.'

Ivan Luzin, who was nominated for the State Duma in the Kaliningrad constituency, found himself in a similar situation. ¹¹

However, not just prospective candidates suspected of having links with Alexei Navalny faced issues during the nomination process. On July 24, the Russian Central Election Commission removed¹² Pavel Grudinin from the federal list of candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation based on information from the Prosecutor General's Office that he owns foreign financial instruments. This decision caused profound anger on the part of the Communists, and they promised to appeal it to the Supreme Court and organize an all-Russian protest.

On July 23, Tver Oblast Election Commission excluded¹³Artyom Vazhenkov from the Yabloko party list in the regional parliament due to his involvement in the activities of an 'undesirable organization.' In substantiating this decision, the election commission refers to information received from the Ministry of Justice. At the same time, they refused to acquaint the candidate with the certificate of the Ministry of Justice, which, in his opinion, violated his right to defense.

The Yabloko party was under pressure. The CEC demanded¹⁴ the party to provide data on the connection of two candidates to the State Duma (Andrei Pivovarov, who is being held in prison in Krasnodar, and human rights activist Marina Agaltsova) with NGOs recognized as 'foreign agents.' For Yabloko, such a decision by the Central Election Commission may mean that the party would have to mark all its campaign materials with a note about links with 'foreign agent' NGOs.

A rather outrageous situation took place in Ingushetia. On July 26, at about 21:00 on Chechenskaya Street, 31, unknown persons beat up members of Partiya Dela (the Party of Action)¹⁵, shouting threats associated with the nomination of candidates to the People's Assembly of Ingushetia.

Use of administrative resource

State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, who is nominated for a new term in his native Saratov region, faced charges¹⁶of the repeated use of an aircraft belonging to the Russian Federation for flights to Saratov and back to Moscow in order to carry out campaigning activities.

On July 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on preparations for the academic year with Minister of Labor and Social Protection Anton Kotyakov and Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov. During his report to the President, Minister Kravtsov mentioned¹⁷ only one party running in elections (United Russia) in the context of allocating budget funds for school renovation, which creates a positive image of the United Russia party and bears signs of campaigning through the use of official position.

On July 13, state organizations of Syzran in Samara Oblast have received a document¹⁸ from the city administration with instruction to be filled in with information about the employees and their relatives. The completed list must be sent to the city administration by August 25. This case bears similarities with what took place during the United Russia primaries held in May when the heads of the enterprises used such lists to pressure workers to take part in the inter-party vote.

In the Krasnodarskiy Krai, newspaper Narodnaya Gazeta Seversky Rayon reported¹⁹that the local municipal organizations' chairmen were instructed to collect data from residents for voting at home, namely passport and other personal data.

In several regions, campaign messages in favor of United Russia were posted on the websites of local administrations: Moscow Oblast²⁰, Krasnodarskiy Krai²¹, St. Petersburg²², and Kostroma Oblast²³.

References:

¹ https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57644

² For a definition of 'foreign agents' and 'undesirable organizations,' see: What are 'foreign agents' and 'undesirable organizations'?

³ For details, see: Deprival of passive suffrage – who cannot run in the 2021 Duma Elections and why

⁴ https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57645

⁵ A 'sanitary case' under Article 236 of the Criminal Code (violation of sanitary and epidemiological norms) was initiated after the protests on January 23. Moscow authorities allege that two dozen people participated in the protests under the supervision of the special 'Social Monitoring' system due to infection or contact with Coronavirus patients. The accusation of incitement to violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules (1st part of Article 236 of the Criminal Code with the application of 4th part of Article 33 of the Criminal Code) was brought against those who, according to the investigation, called for participation in the protests. At the same time, according to the Moscow authorities, in late January and early February, the number of new cases of Covid-19 did not increase but, on the contrary, significantly decreased. For more, see https://ovdinfo.org/story/sanitarnoe-delo (RU)

⁶ https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57888

⁷ https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57929

⁸ https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57738

⁹ https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57874

¹⁰ https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57971

¹¹ https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57914

¹² https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57871

¹³ https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57863

² https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57985

¹⁵ https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57915

⁴ https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57870

⁵ https://www.kartanarusheniy.org/2021-09-19/m/57919