"See how scared I am?"

Deputy head of Novo-Peredelkino district administration discusses fraud in municipal elections with representatives of district election commissions. Video

A video has been published on YouTube in which Svetlana Antonova, deputy head of the Novo-Peredelkino district administration, hands over envelopes with unknown contents to representatives of precinct election commissions, calling it a "reward" and an "advance." Antonova also discusses with her interlocutors how to take into account the turnout of "our supporters" and asks them not to start counting ballots without a call from the district administration. Meduza reports on the content of the video and what Antonova herself and the Moscow mayor's office think about it.

Update from 17:00 on September 9 : Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that the head and deputy head of the Novo-Peredelkino district administration have been fired, and all chairmen of the precinct election commissions have been replaced.

The video titled "How much do fair elections cost?" was posted on YouTube by user "Svetlana Antonova" on the night of September 9. That same morning, the video appeared in the communities of the Moscow districts of Novo-Peredelkino and Solntsevo on social networks.

As far as can be judged, the video is a compilation of several meetings between Svetlana Antonova, deputy head of the Novo-Peredelkino district administration, and representatives of the district's election commissions. As the timer in the video indicates, the meetings took place in the morning and afternoon of September 7.

Most of Antonova's interlocutors in the video are not identified, but the numbers of the polling stations whose commissions they serve on are indicated. According to the video's captions, Antonova holds meetings with representatives of precinct election commissions 2689 (its chairperson is Elena Tarasova; the woman in the video introduces herself as Elena Anatolyevna), 2696, 2673, 2680 (apparently, the precinct election commission chairperson Alla Koloska appears in the video) and 2695. The head of the State Budgetary Institution "Zhilishnik" in Novo-Peredelkino and candidate for municipal deputy from United Russia, Aleksandr Sokolov, also takes part in the last meeting.

The video shows Antonova handing envelopes to all representatives of the precinct election commissions. In a conversation with the chairperson of Precinct Election Commission 2689 (middle of the second minute of the video), Antonova calls the contents of the envelope a "reward." Handing the envelope to the representative of Precinct Election Commission 2673, Antonova says that it contains an "advance," which will be followed by a "salary" (end of the third minute of the video).

Also, in a conversation with a representative of PEC 2673, Antonova explains to her how it is necessary to keep track of the votes of “our supporters”:

“Can you imagine the voters’ book? You have one book at your polling station, and then you unsew it. You have continuous numbering [of voters]. You know that, under each number, you have a person registered. I have all the books in electronic form. And all the people who are entered into the database of our supporters, I have them in electronic form with the same serial number as in the book. I will need you to [report] the numbers of those who came [to the polling station] twice a day, at 12 and 16 [hours].” ( on the video: from 3:55 to 4:35 )

According to Meduza, lists of "supporters" are compiled in districts before municipal elections everywhere. They include people who must vote for each pro-government candidate. One of the political strategists working with the authorities told Meduza that this is an order from the city mayor's office.

In the same conversation, Antonova reports that the commission should begin counting votes only after a call from the administration:

"Wait for my call. When I say that we can start counting. < Unclear .> Hold back the commission. Because suddenly... There are commissions that I don't want to talk to at all, that aren't very good people, let them do as they see fit. < Unclear . > The rest of my colleagues, who... We've been working with you for a long time. < Unclear . > I want to hold back, because suddenly [the wrong candidates] get through, so that our five get through the district, through the region." ( on the video: from 5:00 to 5:30 )

Later in the conversation, the representative of PEC 2673 mentions that she has ballots in a "secret place" - apparently, the votes in them have already been placed for the necessary candidates. Apparently, the women are discussing how to stuff such ballots.

Representative of polling station 2673 : I say to some Vasya: Vasya, throw in 50 [ballots].

Antonova : Yes.

Representative of PEC 2673: And then I carefully, when I need to destroy... remove ten from them...

Antonova : < Inaudible .> And who will count? Yours will count? How many unused! Are you crazy?

Representative of PEC 2673 : Will Rakov not check them there?

Antonova : Unused? No, of course not.

Representative of PEC 2673: Then I boldly put the unused ones... In the protocol, I need to put ten less! < Inaudible .> See how scared I am? (on the video: from 6:45 to 7:30)

The rest of the conversations shown in the video are less detailed. The chairperson of PEC 2689 comes to talk to the second woman, whom Antonova calls an “observer,” and apparently asks her to leave. With the representative of PEC 2680, Antonova briefly discusses the “bad situation” that apparently developed before the elections. “Right now our fate, the money and time of the entire council [depend] on how we conduct the elections,” Antonova tells the representative of PEC 2696. According to the law, precinct election commissions are not subordinate to city councils.

In a conversation with Meduza, Svetlana Antonova indirectly confirmed that she was the one featured in the video, but stated that its content “does not correspond to reality.” “Terrible slander, a terrible cut. I’m just in shock right now. I’ll call back later,” said the deputy head of the Novo-Peredelkino district administration.

According to Meduza, a meeting dedicated to the published video was held at Moscow City Hall on September 9. Anastasia Rakova's deputy Vyacheslav Shulenin was also present. At the time of publication of this material, the City Hall press service had not commented on the fact of the meeting itself or its content.

In addition, a meeting of the Moscow City Electoral Commission (MGIK) was held that morning under the leadership of its chairman Valentin Gorbunov. According to a Meduza source close to the mayor's office, the commission watched the video and came to the conclusion that Svetlana Antonova handed over envelopes with unknown contents to commission members. In connection with this, MGIK decided to contact law enforcement agencies with a request to stop illegal actions, and also instructed the Novo-Peredelkino territorial election commission to hold a meeting by 4 p.m. on September 9 and consider this situation. In addition, MGIK instructed the territorial election commission to respond to the incident and, possibly, remove the culprits from work on the commissions, as well as conduct explanatory work among all the chairmen of the precinct election commissions. According to Meduza's source, the city election commission also asked the mayor's office to take action against Antonova, if there are grounds for doing so.

At the moment, the user "Svetlana Antonova" has published one video on YouTube. The annotation to the video announces "the next series", which will feature representatives of other precinct election commissions of the Novo-Peredelkino district.

Elections of municipal deputies will be held in Moscow on Sunday, September 10.

Taisiya Bekbulatova , Alexander Gorbachev