In St. Petersburg on Nevsky Prospekt, a picketman who spoke for a “smart vote” was detained

In St. Petersburg on Nevsky Prospekt, Sergey Kotov, who went out to a single picket in support of the “smart vote”, was detained. He himself informed the OVD-Info about this.

Kotov was detained near the Gostiny Dvor. He is charged with a “coronavirus” article on violation of sanitary standards (Article 8.6.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of St. Petersburg). The picketer is being taken to the 78th police department, a lawyer Igor Skachko, a collaborating with the OVD-info, is going to his aid.

20:27 The pickets were released from the police department with the protocol under Article 8.6.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of St. Petersburg.

• Smart Voting is a project created in 2018. On the official website, the initiatives describe its mechanism as follows: “In each district, Smart Voting chooses the most promising competitor to United Russia. Thus, “smart voting” helps strangers to voters to act in jointly: not to vote in a differently, “smearing” voices among several alternative united Russian candidates, but to concentrate on the support of one, thereby significantly increasing its chances of victory. ”
• The Russian authorities announced the holding of almost nine thousand electoral companies at various levels on a single voting day on September 19, 2021. On this day, elections of deputies of the State Duma, governors of subjects, deputies of legislative assemblies and city parliaments will be held.
• The head of the Central Election Commission Ella Pamfilova described the goals of the CEC in the elections in 2021: “We will continue to work to increase the trust of our voters, our main goal is the legitimacy of the elections, recognition of the elections by our voters.” At the same time, opposition candidates and members of their election headquarters throughout Russia are faced with pressure: detentions , visits of security forces to headquarters , searches ,attacks of vandals , etc.