19:57, 1 October 2019

Media reveal role of Caucasian athletes in elections in Saint Petersburg

A polling booth. Photo © Eduard Kornienko, Yuga.ru

Natives of Northern Caucasus, hired to attend polling stations in Saint Petersburg, threatened observers from opposition parties and interfered with the calculation of the votes, the "Meduza" reported.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 8, in Southern Russia, elections were held for the heads of the Volgograd and Astrakhan Regions, the Stavropol Territory, and Kalmykia.

According to Ivan Chikhnyaev, a candidate from the "Yabloko" Party, unidentified people promised observers from his party "to take them into slavery in Dagestan."

Several MP candidates said that on the election day, in their constituencies, athletes "managed to occupy almost all the polling stations" and block the activities of observers from opposition parties.

MP Alexei Vorobyov said that "strong young people" with Chechen residence permits in their passports came to his polling station as members of the election commission.

According to the "Meduza", before the elections, the athletes were requested to "put pressure on ideological public controllers."

The athletes are members of the clubs affiliated with candidates from one of the parties and local administrations, the "Meduza" reports in its article.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 1, 2019 at 02:23 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.