Alas, the first victims of the extensive propaganda were not the hesitant ones.
Judge for yourself: even by December 10, “ourists” were publishing the following things on their blogs . And it wasn’t just the “Nashis”; both old-timers and Kurginites of all stripes told horror stories about snipers (as a rule, only to each other). (And when December 10 had successfully passed, none of them even thought that they should apologize for being alarmist).
Well, that's it.
And the candidate, apparently, believed their horror stories.
And now the question is: is the tail wagging the dog, or what?..
By the way, all possible security measures were taken at the protests. And to say this means not to trust your own security forces.