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In order to discuss the latest political event in the neighboring country, MEP Andrius Kubilius held a debate on Thursday on “Russian Dialogues: 2021 parliamentary elections” in Russia, with the participation of Russian opposition activists.
“A simple conclusion can be drawn: to recognize these elections as legitimate would be a big mistake,” said A. Kubilius during the event.
The MEP relied on calculations by election analyst Sergei Spilkin that United Russia actually raised only 31-32%. votes, instead of about 50 percent, as announced.
“We see to what extent the forgery could have taken place during these elections,” commented A. Kubilius.
The biggest scam is electronic voting.
Vladimir Milov, a politician, a colleague of Alexei Navaln, a former Russian deputy energy minister, stressed that the Duma elections in Russia were a blow to the eyes.
“A big scam was organized to achieve the high results of the ruling party. “I think the biggest hoax in this election was the so-called electronic voting in Moscow,” he said.
Almost 2 million votes were obtained through electronic accounting in the Russian capital, which is about 4-4.5 percent. votes cast in this election. 15 Duma terms were raised in Moscow, and this had a significant impact on the party’s results, Milov said.
“We are talking about dozens of mandates that have been affected by electronic voting in Moscow. <...> In 12 of the 15 Moscow districts where paper votes were counted, all United Russia candidates lost. However, the results of the electronic voting that appeared the next day turned the big picture upside down. Electronic voices showed overwhelming support for United Russia. These results are unreliable and very scandalous, “said V. Milovas.
He called electronic voting a psychological pressure tool that is easily used by the regime of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. About 90 percent. The electronic votes obtained in Moscow consisted of votes from employees of state institutions.
“Employees of state institutions were registered by their superiors to register for electronic voting. Employees were told that the government could see why they were casting their vote. That the secrecy of the vote will not be guaranteed. <...> Many of these people voted for “United Russia” not out of support, but out of fear of suffering, “Milov said.
Confidence in Putin’s government is at an all-time low
S. Špilkin’s calculations show that the number of votes cast fraudulently is about 14 million. of 28 million The votes of “United Russia” deserve, said Milov.
“About half of the votes cast by United Russia, according to the government, are a hoax. Without these votes, they would receive fewer than 200 seats in the Duma, which consists of 450 seats. They could not hope to be in the ruling majority. They would just be. a great faction and so on, “said the expert.
This is an important indicator that confidence in the ruling majority is declining. By 2024. Putin will want to expand his presidential powers, show supremacy and have the majority of the public support his party. However, his party did not exceed 50 percent. threshold even through fraud, said an opposition figure.
“This shows that Putin has his own strategic weaknesses and there is a strong movement that is not satisfied with the current system,” Milov said.
Consider that a similar scenario could repeat itself in 2024.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian political figure and journalist and former president of the Boris Nemtsov Freedom Foundation, stressed that freedom of choice was fundamental in the last parliamentary elections. He stressed that there was simply no candidacy from the opposition.
According to him, even in the Soviet Union, people were deprived of political rights. There were about 3 million such people in the USSR, and today we have 9 million in Russia. V. Kara-Murza mentioned the population officially excluded from voting.
Furthermore, the election results do not reflect Russian public opinion, he said.
“What we see? A party that collects about 20 percent in public polls. receive an absolute majority of two thirds of the votes in the elections. “These official election results have nothing to do with reality and do not reflect the true attitude of Russian society,” Kara-Murza said.
The Russian pro-democracy activist also said Putin would not rule Russia forever. “The logic of the story is this: in countries where you cannot change the government at the polls, sooner or later it will change when it takes to the streets,” said Kara-Murza.
Kara-Murza predicted that a similar situation could repeat itself three years after the Russian presidential elections.
“The key word in the so-called ‘parliamentary elections’ was the lack of legitimacy. It will be a keyword and 2024. In the Russian presidential elections. If Putin crosses the red line, he will become an illegal usurper, “said Kara-Murza.
He urged the Western world to hesitate and not recognize the results of these Duma elections.
“2024 will be a fundamental test for Russian society to the extent that it will tolerate an autocratic government. It will also be a test for the Western world and its commitment to international law. <...> The only possible response to this situation would be the formal non-recognition of the elections. “Both through the eyes of the European Union and the West in general,” said V. Kara-Murza.
The elections are called rigged and restrictive of civil rights.
The portal tv3.lt recalls that the Russian parliamentary elections provoked a stormy reaction: opposition figures spoke about the falsified results, and the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) claimed that civil and political rights had been restricted in the country neighbour.
The Russian opposition has accused the authorities of massively falsifying the results of the parliamentary elections, after Monday’s results showed that the ruling party, United Russia, had obtained an absolute majority in the State Duma.
The three-day vote, which ended on Sunday, came after an unprecedented crackdown on critics of President Vladimir Putin. Furthermore, public opinion polls conducted before the elections showed that United Russia’s popularity was historically low.
However, the party still won a two-thirds majority in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, and United Russia’s senior member Andrei Turchak said his party had achieved a “clear and convincing victory.”
Turčak told reporters that the political force would receive 120 seats on the party’s list and another 195 in single-member districts. Therefore, the 450-seat parliament should have a total of 315 members. That’s less than the 334 seats United Russia had before the elections, but still enough for the party to pass important legislation, including constitutional amendments.
The elections held in Russia over the weekend were also evaluated by the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry. The authority stated that the elections to the State Duma were held under conditions of restriction of civil and political rights.
“The Russian authorities have further restricted human rights, the functioning of democracy and freedom of the press through the use of repressive laws on ‘extremist organizations’,’ foreign agents’ and ‘undesirable organizations,” the statement said in a statement. on Monday.
According to the statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “these actions have further restricted political pluralism in Russia and the possibility for the Russian people to freely express their civic position.”
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