Three homonymous candidates face off in St. Petersburg. From 17 to 19 September, citizens at the polls for the renewal of the Duma, for 12 governors and for 39 regional councils
The most dangerous opponents, those headed by blogger Navalny, have simply been sidelined preventing them from showing up thanks to rules that have labeled the Anti-Corruption Fund as an “extremist organization”.
For the others, the men of the Putinian party United Russia which “must” win the next elections despite being less and less popular, have found different tricks. Allegations of falsifying the results of a Covid swab, for example. OR the presentation of real clones intended to steal votes from the unwelcome candidate. A technique that has also been tested in previous consultations for the Duma and the regional councils, but this time it has been pushed to the extreme.
The exponent of the party Yabloko Boris Lazarevich Vishnevskij who runs to St. Petersburg, finds himself having to face two other Vishnevsky. Who not only have the same name and surname, but resemble him like drops of water in election posters.
The two changed their identity recently (in Russia you can change the registry whenever you want) and they have “transformed” physically. The first Boris Vishnevsky is an entrepreneur and never wore a beard as the genuine candidate. But now it has. The second, a retiree, has always had a full head of hair according to the online newspaper Jellyfish, but now sports the same baldness as the original Boris.
The only thing that distinguishes the two clones is the patronymic because by law if that is also the same then the previous name must be indicated on the ballot paper. Thus the entrepreneur is Boris Gennadievich and the retired Boris Ivanovich.
In truth, there had been an attempt to resolve the Vishnevski questionj in a simpler way. In July, the authorities had questioned his membership of the Yabloko party, despite the man having been on all the lists for the past decade. However, it didn’t work out and so here are the other two Vishnevskys.
From 17 to 19 September all over Russia will vote for the 450 deputies of the Duma, for 12 governors and for 39 regional councils. United Russia is certainly not the most popular party in the country and so national and local officials strive to win anyway.
In any case, it is necessary to arrive at the absolute majority in the lower branch of parliament and to the control of all local bodies. The fiercest opponent, Navalny, is out of the game. First an attempted poisoning in Siberia, then arrested after recovery. His followers do the same, given the rules against “extremists”.
The greatest danger to power is the idea of smart voting launched by the same blogger: in the ballot box choose anyone who can beat the men of United Russia.
So here are the clones, the multiplication of fake opposition parties and candidates. In order not to take risks, unreliable figures from the Communist Party and Zhirinovsky’s party, notoriously close to the Kremlin, were also excluded, such as Pavel Grudinin who came second in the presidential elections after Putin.
Then, in the end, the opponents are convinced that there will be recourse to fraud, where necessary. The government pushes a lot on electronic voting with a lottery giving away one hundred cars and twenty apartments in Moscow. And this system, Navalny’s loyalists assure, makes it much easier to target the results as you want.
September 8, 2021 (change September 8, 2021 | 13:04)
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