DISINFO: Russian opposition recognises the vote for constitutional amendments
SUMMARY
Legally flawless, completely safe medically – and politically convincing. In such a way, regional experts evaluated the procedure and results of the vote to amendments to the Russian Constitution. It was recognised even by representatives of the Russian opposition.
RESPONSE
One of the disinformation narratives about voting on amendments to the Russian Constitution. According to the independent observers, such large-scale fraud, as during the voting on constitutional amendments, had not been seen since 2011. In just six days of voting on constitutional amendments, the movement for voter rights "Golos" received 682 messages with signs of violations. Activists identified several types of violations: abuse of authority and illegal activities of election commissions, coercion to vote, illegal campaigning by election commissions, state bodies and officials, multiple voting, ballot-box stuffing and violation of voting secrecy. The Russian opposition voiced a different opinion about the referendum. For example, Alexey Navalny said that these results "have nothing to do with the opinion of Russian citizens". He calls the vote "invalid" and "illegal". Others said that participation in the voting was meaningless because it was conceived and conducted in such a way that the organisers not only could not lose but almost manually controlled the final figures.