Russia won’t have gems like these anymore, without its voting station webcams

Three years ago, just in time for Vladimir Putin to win a third presidential term, Russia launched an ambitious transparency measure in its electoral process, installing webcams at voting stations throughout the nation. Much of Russia is abandoning that effort later this year, however, and elections in 2015 won’t offer the same coverage of democracy in action.

A member of Russia’s federal election commission told the news agency RBC that the government has decided to save money by pulling cameras in 11 regions and 23 regional centers. In the Rostov region, for example, only 100 of more than 2,000 voting stations will use webcams in elections later this year.

In 2012, ahead of presidential elections that returned Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin after a four-year term as the prime minister, Russia spent 20 billion rubles (more than $350 million at today’s exchange rate) to buy and install cameras, computers, and servers to webcast video from all Russia’s voting stations. The equipment is now stored in warehouses around the country.

The independent television station TV Rain collected some of the most obvious instances of past voter fraud, captured by the webcams, the likes of which Russia won’t likely broadcast again.