Once and future Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned Western countries not to interfere in the upcoming election, in which he will likely be re-elected president, but some Russian citizens are worried about Putin meddling with the ballot boxes to guarantee his own victory.
Putin used to serve in the Soviet secret police, but at least one “devoted communist” is going to court to protest election fraud perpetrated by Putin’s political party, United Russia. After working as a poll watcher at a recent local election, Alexander Ryazanov “was issued with [signed and stamped document] late at night confirming the result of the count.” The next morning, though, Putin’s party officially had 10 percent more votes, he says.
“It’s falsification,” Ryazonov told the BBC, “and according to the Russian constitution, this is a crime.” A college student added that he was hired by Putin’s party “to go round polling stations and cast ballots already marked for United Russia. I wasn’t happy with that. It was deception.”
The local election commission chief denounces such reports as baseless political attacks. “Among those sources [for a recent election fraud study] are people from two political parties which lost the election,” he said.
