From the 17th to the 19th of September 2021, millions of Russians voted in the country’s parliamentary elections. However, due to fraud and a systematic scheme the outcome was already set before the voting had even started. As a start, more than 80 oppositional candidates were denied from participating in the elections due to striunclear reasons. Not only were these candidates disqualified from participating; a temporary ban to protest this decision was issued as well. The Russian regime’s crackdown on democracy was however not only targeted against the opposition. Ordinary citizens were stripped of their right to show open support for the opposition ever since the new anti-extremist law was passed, with the goal of shutting down Alexey Navalny’s party.

The electoral procedure has shown to be more than questionable from the start, but more was about to come. More dubious laws were enforced, evidence of voting falsifications started to pile up, denied access to video surveillance in voting booths, and a major shutdown on certain apps on Google Play and App Store are just a few examples of the fraud that took place. When voices from the civil society and other movements raised these concerns, the Russian government replied by denying these allegations on state TV. According to the government, these were conspiracies designed by foreign forces and LGBT-movements.

When the votes were counted, reports showed how ‘’wrong” protocols’ had been sent back to be re-written in order to favor the regime. The official turnout was said to be 90 %, however, when counting the official data, the turnout is over 100 %. This shows once again how the election was manipulated. According to different estimates, the amount of voter fraud could reach as much as 16 million votes, one third of the votes for Putin’s party United Russia.

The citizens of the Russian Federation are displeased with the results of the election since these results clearly do not represent the will of the people. Instead, it portraits a large election scheme favoring United Russia and those close to the regime. This cannot be approved nor accepted. For these reasons, Vesna and LYMEC call on all EU member states to not recognise the result of these elections.

Vesna Youth Democratic Movement