Blogger from Anapa reported threats for refusing to post candidate's campaign poster

The family of the author of the entertainment blog chokatella faced threats after refusing to post a campaign poster for one of the candidates running in Anapa. Commentators advised her to file a complaint against the author of the threats and make his name public.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" reported, municipal electionswere held in the south of Russia from September 12 to 14, in the Rostov Region and Krasnodar Krai, voting was held in parallel with the gubernatorial elections. Candidates and parties reported ballot stuffing and falsifications during home voting. Over the first two days of the elections, the turnout in the gubernatorial elections in Kuban and Rostov Oblast was higher than in the municipal elections, and multiple violations were recorded there.

On September 14, the author of the blog chokatella published a video in which she reported threats for refusing to place campaigning for a candidate for deputy of the Anapa City Council. According to her, her husband received two calls from representatives of one of the candidates with an offer to post a video in her blog stories calling for people to vote for the candidate. However, her husband refused both times, since the blog is "outside of politics." After that, she began receiving threats - in particular, she provided two voice messages on the video, which, according to her, are "full of swearing" and threats, with the foul language mostly "bleeped out." "Let him try not to post it <...> I'll start pinching him at every turn. He won't be able to breathe on his own," the male voice says, in particular. The blogger did not name the candidate (it is also "bleeped out" on the video).

"I ask for publicity and help, this is my defense," she wrote in the description of the video

The blogger posted this entry on her Telegram channel, which has 5,599 subscribers. The post had garnered 88 comments by 01:59 Moscow time on September 15.

"Write a statement to the police, there's no point in thinking about it," Pavel Kalambet noted.

"Send all these messages to the TEC, the CEC, the Investigative Committee's online reception. Don't be lazy and go on foot, file paper statements with the OMVD, the Prosecutor's Office, the Investigative Committee," Mikhail advised.

"A statement to the police. A statement to the prosecutor's office with a request to monitor the police's work on your statement. Because you're afraid that the police won't take your statement seriously enough. A statement to the parliamentary ethics committee of the given party.
A complaint to the party leader. And give the name. Otherwise, it all looks like a setup," Maria Ivanovna believes.

"Most likely, they'll refuse to initiate a criminal case. It's hard to prove a real threat," - Rome Anapa objected.

Some users noted that she was wrong not to post the name of the candidate for whom she was offered to place campaigning. "In the right places, everyone has names," the blogger replied.

In the next message, she thanked the audience for their support, saying that "half the city" called her. The blogger did not inform whether she filed a police report or not.

Before that, on September 13, she published a photo from a polling station, where empty ballots that were issued in the elections for the governor of Krasnodar Krai and the Anapa City Council were lying on the table, calling on subscribers to go to the polls.

The blog is dedicated to tourism, recreation, ecology, and thoughts about life. It does not touch on political topics.

The blogger's Instagram* page has 77.6 thousand subscribers. "A review of beautiful places, locations, food," the blog description says.

The message about the threats on Instagram* had garnered 423 comments by 01.59. Responding to them, she reported that the voice messages with threats were not recorded by the candidate for deputy himself, but by the person who asked for him, who also "by the way, holds the position."

* the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) are prohibited in Russia.