Special operation to discredit – Newspaper Kommersant No. 166 (7367) dated 09/09/2022

On Thursday, the last day of the campaign period on the eve of the single voting day, representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Just Russia – For Truth (SRZP) almost simultaneously complained about the harassment of their candidates, as well as discrediting the positions of their parties in relation to the special operation in Ukraine. Residents of the Oryol region, which is led by communist Andrei Klychkov, are trying to be convinced that the SRZP candidates oppose the special operation, the Socialist-Revolutionaries say. The Communists deny the accusations and, in response, point out that pranksters in Moscow are trying to discredit the candidates from the Communist Party in the same way.

The difficulties that SRZP encountered in the conduct of campaigning were described by its representatives at a press conference on 8 September. For example, in the Tver region, the Social Revolutionaries were not allowed to hang campaign billboards. “We are the party that supports the president and the special military operation, and we are in such a humiliating position in the Tver region,” complained the leader of the SRZP, Sergei Mironov. In the Republic of Mari El, according to him, a few days ago, completed applications for voting at home, dated September 8, were found at one of the polling stations, which indicates the intention to “cheat a little”.

Andrey Kuznetsov, a candidate for governor of the Sverdlovsk region from SRZP, was disrupted more than ten times with meetings with voters and glossed over visual campaigning.

Olga Zavoloka, a Moscow candidate for municipal deputies, also faced an unpleasant situation: someone advertised that a hostel had opened in her apartment at a price of 300 rubles. per day, and labor migrants began to come to the woman en masse.

But “the most amazing fact,” according to Mr. Mironov, took place in the Oryol region, which is headed by communist Andrei Klychkov. “There was a telephone sociological survey, where the person who picked up the phone was informed that the SRZP party allegedly does not support a special military operation. And then the question followed, how do you feel about candidates who do not support it. The next question was information that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, of course, supports,” the leader of the SRZP said, adding that the local SRs had already turned to the FSB. According to party members, all this happens with the knowledge of the governor.

At the same time, the Right-wing Russians, as it turned out, are not averse to accusing their opponents of insufficient support for the SVO.

Sergei Mironov recalled that as early as March 1, the SRZP Duma faction, following the results of an internal vote, unanimously supported the president, while other parties did not agree to this. And the secretary of the Presidium of the Central Council of the SRZP on political issues, the leader of the Moscow Social Revolutionaries, Dmitry Gusev, bluntly stated that among the candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation there are opponents of the special operation. As evidence, he cited a video of pranksters Vovan and Lexus, who called Moscow candidates for municipal deputies from the Communist Party and asked them about their attitude towards the SVO: “Many of these communists spoke out against it. The Communist Party candidates turned out to be fake.”

The story with the pranksters is just an attempt to discredit the Communist Party, Yury Afonin, the first deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, assured Kommersant. He admitted that individuals among the candidates from the Communist Party may criticize the SVO, but this is “pointed” and, most likely, they are non-partisan. The communist categorically denies the accusations in the Oryol region: spending money and effort on such calls, especially in a region where the positions of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation are strong, is “just ridiculous,” Yuri Afonin is sure. In addition, according to him, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation does not consider SR candidates as competitors.

In turn, the Communists, at their press conference on September 8, also announced an “off-scale number of violations” during the election campaign.

According to Mr. Afonin’s estimates, almost 1,000 candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation failed to register in the municipal elections on far-fetched pretexts.

In addition, according to him, the technology of nominating people with the same or similar surnames was actively used against the communists, their meetings with voters were disrupted, and party agitators were beaten.

As reported by Kommersant, earlier the Communist Party of the Russian Federation announced a large-scale campaign organized against them in the elections to the Omsk City Council: in half of the 40 single-mandate constituencies, their candidates are opposed by rivals with the same or similar names. And in Moscow, in early September, candidates for municipal deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation even filed a series of lawsuits with the court to remove their namesakes from the Communists of Russia party from the elections.

Mr. Afonin also demonstrated the newspaper Pravda Moskvy, allegedly issued on behalf of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, with materials discrediting the communists about their “connections with both the authorities and Navalny.” Georgy Kamnev, secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, complained about judicial pressure on candidates, the destruction of campaign materials and mass early voting. And at the request of journalists to comment on the inclusion of candidates from the Communist Party in the lists of “Smart Voting”, party leader Gennady Zyuganov replied that “the smartest vote is for the Communist Party.”

Yuri Afonin explained the “campaign against the communists” by saying that the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is the main opponent of United Russia. And Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee Dmitry Novikov expressed the opinion that “against the background of external threats, United Russia did not have enough responsibility to conduct an honest campaign.” But the Communist Party does not intend to give up and therefore doubled the number of observers: for example, in the Krasnodar Territory, 6 thousand observers were sent to 2.8 thousand polling stations for three days, Mr. Afonin said.

Ksenia Veretennikova, Maria Makutina