foreign agents are trying to obstruct the holding of presidential elections – Kommersant

The head of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, Vasily Piskarev, reported on numerous attempts by the media and individuals declared as foreign agents to obstruct the holding of the Russian presidential elections.

“We are talking about attempts to influence public opinion by spreading disinformation, providing an unlimited number of people with methodological and propaganda materials (graffiti stencils, leaflets, talking points to discredit our country, the electoral system and the election monitoring process), as well as inciting the creation protest groups in the regions, calls for illegal actions,”— reported Mr. Piskarev during a meeting of the commission to investigate the facts of foreign interference in the affairs of the Russian Federation.

As an example of an attempt to “counteract the holding of presidential elections,” he cited a petition from more than 30 foreign non-governmental organizations from the USA, France, Belgium, Lithuania, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Poland, Italy, Canada, Portugal, and Israel to world leaders, in which calls to recognize the results of the March vote as illegitimate.

Mr. Piskarev noted that this petition was signed by “dozens of representatives of extremist and undesirable organizations in Russia, relocants, including economist Sergei Guriev, ex-deputy chairman of the Central Bank Sergei Aleksashenko, politician Leonid Gozman, human rights activist Lev Ponomarev, etc., recognized as foreign agents.

Currently registered as a presidential candidate passed representatives of three parliamentary parties – Leonid Slutsky (LDPR), Vladislav Davankov (New People) and Nikolai Kharitonov (Communist Party of the Russian Federation).

From non-parliamentary parties, Sergei Malinkovich (“Communists of Russia”), Boris Nadezhdin (“Civil Initiative”), Andrei Bogdanov (“Russian Party of Freedom and Justice”), Sergei Baburin (“Russian All-People’s Union”) and Irina Sviridova (“Russian Party of Freedom and Justice”) were nominated for president. Democratic Party of Russia”) – they need to collect 100 thousand signatures of voters. Vladimir Putin, the Russian Rada and Anatoly Batashev are running as self-nominated candidates – they must collect 300 thousand signatures each.

Read about the election campaign in the Kommersant publication “The candidates went to the people.”

Alexander Kislov