Russia’s liberal opposition Yabloko party said one of its election observers fainted while police were detaining him at a polling station in St. Petersburg on Saturday, the second day of a tightly controlled parliamentary vote.
The three-day election, which began Friday and concludes Sunday, is Russia’s first parliamentary contest since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. With virtually no genuine opposition allowed to compete, the vote is almost certain to reinforce the Kremlin’s dominance.
Yabloko said polling-station officials accused the observer of trying to “disrupt the elections” before summoning police. Officers then “used force” against him, according to the party.
The party said in a statement posted to Telegram on Saturday that it was unclear whether the man received immediate medical care after losing consciousness. He was taken to a police station and charged with disobeying police orders, Yabloko said.
Russian officials did not immediately respond to the report.
Yabloko is the only registered political organization that has openly challenged Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russia’s Supreme Court removed the party from the ballot last month, leaving it with only a few dozen candidates in single-constituency races. Several anti-war politicians have also been jailed or driven into exile before the campaign began.
Yabloko and the Communist Party said many of their election monitors had been denied access to polling stations. Although the Communists have criticized some government policies, they have avoided direct criticism of President Vladimir Putin.
On Friday, Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov appealed to Central Election Commission chief Ella Pamfilova over what the party described as widespread obstruction and pressure targeting its observers.
“The scale of what’s happening does not allow us to view this as a misunderstanding,” Rybakov said.
Russia did not invite monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to oversee the election. The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the organization of applying “double standards” because of its criticism of Moscow.
Instead, Russian authorities said they had invited other international organizations and observers from OSCE member countries.
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Pere Joan Pons, president of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, said excluding the organization violated Russia’s commitments as an OSCE member state.
“This persistent rejection of independent scrutiny follows a deeply worrying pattern of disregard for the principles of transparency, democratic accountability and the rule of law,” he said.
Russia’s Central Electoral Committee said more than 380,000 election observers had been registered before voting began, representing 11 political parties. United Russia accounted for 97,040 of them, while the Communist Party had the next-largest contingent, with 42,743 observers.
The committee also reported that 1,126 international observers and “electoral experts” from 133 countries and 13 international organizations had been registered.
Authorities imposed additional limits on election monitors ahead of the parliamentary vote. A new code of ethics bars observers from making statements “that could be construed as undermining confidence in the electoral system.”
The government spread voting across the weekend in an effort to increase participation among 111 million eligible voters and made electronic voting available.
The Kremlin wants the election to demonstrate public backing for its war in Ukraine and provide it with a veneer of legitimacy. To limit political risk, authorities have moved aggressively to suppress even the smallest signs of dissent.
United Russia, the Kremlin’s dominant party, is virtually certain to maintain its overwhelming control of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. Several smaller parties in the “systemic opposition” are also expected to retain their seats, despite routinely voting with the government on major issues.
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