The most dangerous opponents, those headed by blogger Navalny, were simply sidelined prevent them from appearing Thanks to rules that described the Anti-Corruption Fund as an “extremist organisation”.

For others, the men of United Russia, who “must” win the upcoming elections despite being less and less popular, found different tricks. Allegations of falsifying Covid swab results, for example. or Show real clones She intends to steal votes from the unwanted candidate. A technique that was also tested in previous consultations of the State Duma and regional councils, but this time it was pushed to the limits.

party ace Yabloko Boris Lazarevich Vishnevskij Running to Saint Petersburg, he finds himself having to face two more Vishnevskys. Who not only bear the same name and surname, but look like water drops in election posters.

The two changed their identities Recently (in Russia, you can change the registry whenever you want) and they have actually “converted”. Boris Vishnevsky I is a businessman and did not wear a beard as a real candidate. But now it is. The second, who is retired, always had a head full of hair according to the Internet newspaper Jellyfish, but now suffers from the same baldness as the original Boris.

The only thing that distinguishes the two versions is the father Because by law, if this is also the same, then the previous name must be indicated on the ballot paper. So does businessman Boris Gennadievich and retired Boris Ivanovich.

In fact, there was an attempt To solve the Vishnevsky problemin a simpler way. In July, authorities questioned his membership in the Yabloko party, even though the man had been on all lists for the past decade. However, it did not work out, and here the other two Vishnevsky are located.

From September 17 to 19, all of Russia will vote for the 450 Duma deputies, 12 governors and 39 regional assemblies. The United Russia party is certainly not the most popular party in the country So the national and local officials are striving to win anyway.

In any case, it is necessary to access Absolute majority in the lower branch of parliament And to monitor all local bodies. The fiercest opponent, Navalny, is out of the game. First an attempt was made to poison in Siberia, then he was caught after his recovery. His followers do the same, given the rules against “extremists”.

The greatest danger to power is the idea Smart Voting The same blogger called it: at the ballot box, choose anyone who can beat the men of United Russia.

So here are the clones, the proliferation of opposition parties and fictitious candidates. In order not to take risks, unreliable figures from the Communist Party and Zhirinovsky’s party, known to be close to the Kremlin, were also excluded, such as Pavel Grudinen Which came second in the presidential election after Putin.

And then, in the end, the opponents are convinced that, when necessary, fraud will be resorted to. The government is putting a lot of pressure on electronic voting With a lottery awarding one hundred cars and twenty apartments in Moscow. And this system, Navalny loyalists assure, makes it easy to target the results however you want.