Should we ignore the Russian presidential elections?

The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation refused to register oppositionist Alexei Navalny as a candidate for the post of President of Russia. In response, the politician announced a “voter strike.” He calls on people not to participate in the elections, to work at polling stations as observers and to encourage everyone to join the strike. According to Navalny, spoiling ballots or voting “for anyone but Putin” is not worth it, because in this way voters will recognize these elections as legitimate.

Yes, it's legal. According to the Constitution, everyone is free to decide whether to participate in elections. And there is nothing illegal about urging a person to exercise his constitutional right. It’s another matter if someone restricts someone else’s right to vote—for example, by blocking polling stations. This is prohibited by law: the Criminal Code has an article on “obstructing the exercise of electoral rights or the work of election commissions.” In 2006, the Chairman of the Central Election Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov, proposed considering calls for a boycott as a type of obstruction, but so far no such amendments have been adopted.

They can. Because executive bodies sometimes interpret the law in their own way. For example, in the summer of 2016, Roskomnadzor included four sites with calls to boycott the Duma elections into the register of prohibited information. A message on the department’s website said that “activities to organize the disruption of elections to the lower house of parliament undermine the foundations of the constitutional order.” In 2013, one of the defendants in the case against members of the Islamic party Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is recognized as terrorist in the Russian Federation and has been banned since 2003,was found guilty of calls for extremism because of a video where he called for a boycott of the elections.

This would have been the case before, but now the elections are recognized as valid regardless of the number of voters. The turnout threshold was abolished in 2006. Before this law, in presidential elections this threshold was 50% of voters.

Nothing will happen. If, of course, we take the possible manipulations of election commissions out of the equation. Theoretically, unused ballots could, for example, be used for “stuffing” - this is a method of election fraud when blank ballots are filled in for a candidate.

It's a difficult question. Perhaps the only more or less reliable way to make sure that your vote will not be stolen is to become an observer in your polling station, be present during the counting and make sure that your vote (or a spoiled ballot) is counted correctly. It is also important to note here that only those ballots are considered spoiled if there is nothing in the voting squares or, conversely, more than one square is filled in. So even if you write “Navalny” in the box next to Putin’s name, it will be considered that you voted for Putin.

Yes, according to the law, they can influence it. This is why many believe that spoiling a ballot is a good tactic for protest voting. For example, member of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Boris Vishnevsky (Yabloko) suggests presenting the result of voting for a candidate as a simple fraction. After all, according to the law, this result is obtained as follows: the number of votes for a candidate is divided by the number of ballots in the ballot boxes. It turns out that the greater the number of ballots in the boxes, the lower the result for each candidate. That is, roughly speaking, if you want Putin to have less interest, you should go to the polls and spoil the ballot.

We don't have an answer to this question. There are different opinions on how you should behave if none of the candidates suits you at all. Some may agree with Alexei Navalny: elections without Putin’s main rival are not elections, and one should not recognize their legitimacy by one’s participation. Others believe that it is better to make sure that nothing is done with the voice. Still others are confident that one should participate in elections in any case, because any legal method of expressing one’s will should be used, even if there is no chance of winning. If you are afraid of making the wrong decision, you can always sign up as an observer or try to become a member of the election commission - this is certainly not without meaning.

Alexander Borzenko

The editors thank the co-chairman of the “Voice” movement Grigory Melkonyants for consultations