AFTER THE most bitter election campaign in post-Soviet Russia, voters in Moscow went to the polls in miserable conditions of sleet and rain amid signs of interference in opposition and independent media.
From early on in the day, websites of leading newspapers and radio stations were inaccessible, while observers and journalists, including this correspondent, came across instances of possible fraud in polling stations.
The website of independent radio station Ekho Moskvy, which describes itself as “a free radio for a free people”, was down yesterday.
Ekho Moskvy is one of the few media outlets not controlled by Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party or by organisations such as the giant pro-Putin energy company Gazprom.
It broadcasts impartial news bulletins but its website contains blogs that consistently refer to United Russia not by its Russian initials, ER, but as PZhiV – an acronym for the party of crooks and thieves.
The website of business newspaper Kommersantwas out of action for most of the day but returned in the early evening, while that of liberal news magazine Novoye Vremyawas also unavailable.
Of even greater significance was the absence of the website of Russia’s main election observation organisation, Golos (Voice), which has been under consistent pressure from the authorities.
Golos was reported to the public prosecutor last week by three deputies from the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. It was fined $1,000 (€747) for offences against electoral and mass media laws, including the subjective offence of “putting forward rumours as truth”. Golos director Liliya Shibanova had her laptop taken from her by customs officers at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow under the accusation that it contained unlicensed software, an offence that is extremely common in Russia, where pirate software abounds.
The pressure on Golos began after Mr Putin gave a speech to United Russia members in which he accused opponents of accepting foreign money and compared them to Judas Iscariot as traitors of their country. Golos is funded by independent pro-democracy organisations in the US and EU.
Dmitriy Muratov, the editor of Novaya Gazeta,one of the few independent newspapers in Russia, responded with an attack on Mr Putin and his party. "It is better to take money from foreign organisations than to steal it from the Russian taxpayer," he said.
It was significant that no Golos representative was present at any of the polling stations I visited in Moscow yesterday. However, there were representatives from opposition parties including the Communists, the social-democratic grouping A Just Russia and the pro-western Yabloko.
At one station a Communist Party representative said about 200 votes, all for United Russia, were found in a ballot box before the station opened for voters yesterday morning. After protests by opposition representatives, the box was set aside for a decision on its contents later in the day.
In another instance a person whose father was in hospital spoke of a ballot being brought to him from his local polling station already marked in favour of United Russia.
United Russia, meanwhile, claimed it had uncovered “thousands” of election abuses by opposition parties.
