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Herald Correspondent
The elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation will be held from Friday to Sunday.
The State Duma is one of the chambers of the Russian Parliament, the Federal Assembly. It is a legislative authority that consists of 450 members elected for five years. Its main tasks are adoption of federal constitutional and federal laws, control over the activity of the Russian Government, appointment and dismissal of heads of the Central Bank, Accounts Chamber and High Commissioner on Human Rights, declaration of amnesty, and issues of international parliamentarian cooperation.
Members of the State Duma are elected by citizens of the Russian Federation who have reached the age of 18 based on universal, equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot for a term of five years. To be elected as a member of the State Duma one has to reach the age of 21.
A total of 225 members are elected in single-mandate electoral districts (one district — one member) and 225 are elected in the federal electoral districts in proportion to the number of votes cast for federal lists of candidates.
In the order of the draw, the following list of parties was approved by the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation: Communist Party of the Russian Federation; Green Party; Liberal Democratic Party of Russia; New People; United Russia; Just Russia-For the Truth; Apple Party; Party of Growth; Russian Party of Freedom and Justice; Communists of Russia; Civil Platform; Green Alternative; Homeland and Russian Party of Pensioners for Social Justice.
It is to be noted that in March 2021, the All-Russian Political Party “United Russia” and ZANU-PF signed a cooperation agreement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed a hope that the “United Russia” party will manage to hold its own following the results of the election to the State Duma.
“I do hope that the United Russia will maintain its position and have an opportunity at the legislative level to take relevant decisions in the interests of the country,” President Putin said recently at a meeting with the party members.
The elections will not affect negatively the coronavirus situation, says Valentina Matviyenko, Speaker of the Federation Council (the upper house of parliament). Vaccination rates rose recently and we hope that they will be high enough when the election day comes, which will reduce the infection of Covid-19. All the necessary measures are being taken to protect voters from contracting the virus,” Matviyenko emphasised.
The Russian Senate Speaker pointed out that it would be completely safe for people to take part in the vote. “Voting will last three days so that we can make sure that there are no crowds and people can cast their ballots at a convenient time,” Matviyenko explained.
A meeting “On interference in elections in the Russian Federation through foreign non-governmental organisations recognised as undesirable” was held at the State Duma in July.
The chairman of the Commission on the Investigation of Foreign Interference in Russia’s Internal, Affairs Vasilii Piskarev noted that National Democratic Institute funded by the US Agency for International Development had launched a website, opened a YouTube channel for Russian citizens and downloaded webinars on elections. Those materials contain information how to conduct election campaigns, promote agents of influence, as well as to organise illegal protest actions and disrupt elections.
As Western countries prepare the ground for non-recognition of the results of Russia’s elections, the chairman of the Civic Chamber’s Coordinating Council for Public Control over Voting Maxim Grigoriev spelled out in his report ‘Myths about the Russian elections‘ how the Russian ‘fifth column’ works.’
“At the beginning, Western countries tried to make those people associated with them — political parties, candidates — get into Russian parliament. However, they realised that there was no chance of this happening. So they switched to a disinformation campaign, attempting to discredit the Russian elections in one way or another,” Grigoriev noted.
“This summer they learned that it was impossible to alter Russian public opinion, so, they switched to Western public opinion. They are simply preparing the ground for non-recognition of Russia’s elections,” the Civic Chamber official said.
The chairwoman of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, believes that following the world’s negative assessment of the US presidential election, Washington needs to discredit Russia’s election campaign, something that must not be allowed.
“We have been working for so long to halt negative information flows, but we need help. Other communities should support us as well. It is a problem that we all face if we are eager to prevent the rising volume of fake news. After the US presidential election and its negative assessment around the world, the Americans have to apportion blame on us”, said Pamfilova said an interview with the St Petersburg TV channel.
In her opinion, the US needs to “disrupt the elections and discredit Russia”.
“A matter of honour for us is to defend the elections and prevent them from defamation. One should move forward vigorously, dynamically, and swiftly expose fake news makers, calling a spade a spade. The protection of civil society is our common endeavour. Experts, ordinary people, those, who care for our country and those, who cannot stand being deceived, join in for this noble cause. Together we must defend our elections contrary to those who try to lecture us,” the CEC chair emphasised.
Pamfilova pointed out that there would be “the entire political and social spectrum, competitiveness, candidates and parties from right to left forces to choose” in the September elections.
“I will stress it one more time, it’s our goal to defend the election. We should hold an open, fair, transparent campaign to achieve this beyond any shadow of a doubt,” she concluded.
On September 10, the US Ambassador to Moscow J.Sullivan was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry to meet with Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Ryabkov. During the conversation it was stressed that the Russian government had indisputable evidence of violations of the Russian legislation by American “digital giants” in the context of preparing and holding elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. Interference in the internal affairs of Russia is categorically unacceptable, it was pointed out to the US Ambassador.
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