The New Gazeta Europe writes that the associates of Nadezhdin from the Civil Initiative could submit 20 thousand fake signatures for politicians in the CEC

The party calls it "outright lies." Maxim Katz claims that the publication was paid

The New Gazeta Europe has published a material that states that the associates of Boris Nadezhdin from the Civil Initiative party could “substitute” it and submit to the Central Election Commission (CEC) fake and unverified signatures for nominating a politician candidate for the presidential election.

The publication, citing volunteers and representatives of the headquarters of Nadezhdin, said that two separate teams coordinated the collection of signatures for politics: representatives of the Civil Initiative Party, who allegedly “did not believe too much in the prospects of Nadezhdin, and the volunteers of the“ headquarters of candidates ”who wanted to success a policy.

The article was released on February 5 amid reports that the CEC has rejected 15% of the signatures collected for Nadezhdin. According to the publication “7 × 7”, in total, the commission considered invalid 9209 signatures. Nadezhdin himself said that he was going to “beat off” the signatures. “It is enough for us to beat off about 4,500 signatures out of 9209, recognized as invalid,” he wrote in Telegram. If the Central Election Commission refuses him to register, Nadezhdin said, he will appeal this decision in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

Update. On February 6, Boris Nadezhdin asked the Central Election Commission to transfer the consideration of the issue of registering his candidacy for the presidential election from February 7 to 10. Ella Pamfilova said that the members of the election commission, “showing goodwill,” decided to transfer the meeting to February 8.

What is said in the article "Novaya Gazeta Europe"

According to the interlocutors of the publication, in the campaign to collect signatures in support of Nadezhdin, the initially there were two “projects”: one collected the signatures of Russians abroad, the second from the Russian regions. On January 27, a few days before passing signatures to the CEC, the third “project” appeared, which was engaged in “bad” signatures from the regions, that is, unverified signatures with errors. Its coordinator was Maria Neveleva - the head of the official Moscow headquarters Nadezhdina.

The team is neeler, claimed in the article, filled the “cellars” of signature sheets with low -quality signatures around the clock. After that, the sheets were to be sent to the department of checking the election headquarters, but Neveleva sent them to the so -called hut - so the Nadezhdin team called an additional unofficial campaign office in a private house in the village of Rechnik near Moscow.

According to the four interlocutors of Novaya Gazeta Europe, who were in the “hut” while working with signatures, on the night of January 31, before submitting signatures to the CEC, people from the Civil Initiative party, who were also in the “hut”, could be involved in about 20 thousand fake and unverified signatures with real signatures from the official headquarters of Nadezhdin.

Two interlocutors of journalists said that they passed the “bad” and fake signatures from at least six regions in the CEC: the Perm Territory, the Tver, Tula, Kaluga and Kurgan regions, as well as from the Republic of Mari El. Another source that worked in the “hut” said that “there were four regions where there was a mass painting”, but “the most trash” was not sent to the CEC. The interlocutors argue that the headquarters in the regions from where the “fake” signatures came, organized the associates of Nadezhdin from the “civil initiative”, who did not have an “ethical problem” with the surrender of “bad” signatures.

On the night before passing the signatures in the “hut” there was a conflict between the “Civil Initiative” team and the volunteers of the “headquarters of candidates” who were engaged in checking the signatures there.

It is alleged that the employees of the Civil Initiative did not want the team of the "headquarters of the candidates" to check the signatures. In turn, the "headquarters of the candidates" was going to digitize the signatures so that in case of refusal of the CEC to register Nadezhdin to arrange a proceedings. But this was prevented by the employees of the Civil Initiative and political technologists associated with Nadezhdin. Among them are political technologists Alexander and Arthur Nazarenko, who worked for the Rodina party a few years ago, and in recent years - at the Communist Party in the protest regions, including Khakassia, a supporter of the war, Konstantin Vlasov (at different times he worked with the Communist Party and “Patriots of Russia”, in “War” was engaged in the technical organization of space) and Rodika Aidikaev, who worked for “United Russia” and the party ”and the party” and the party growth. They kicked out volunteers. As one of the sources of Novaya Gazeta Europe suggests, the Civil Initiative team found volunteers with provocateurs. Also, as claimed in the article, that night in the “hut” was the daughter of Nadezhdin.

“I was scared at that moment, [when the volunteers were kicked out into the street]. He [Vlasov] screamed and drove the guys, said that he would bury everyone in the forest. No one knows who this person is. Even my leadership [Federal Staff] did not know him, ”said another interlocutor of the publication, who was in the“ hut ”during the scandal.

Sources of journalists believe that the differences between the two headquarters of Nadezhdin arose due to communication problems and the difference in priorities. “Some [“ headquarters of candidates ”] wanted high -quality signatures, while others [“ Civil Initiative ”] - so that everything would come together according to the protocols [filed in the CEC],” said one of the interlocutors of Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Another source from the leadership of the official headquarters Nadezhdin suggested that the “civil initiative” was engaged in the creation of “drawn” signatures due to the fact that she did not expect a successful collection of real ones. According to him, there was no malicious intent in the actions of the Civil Initiative team, and the techniques and representatives of the party simply wanted to earn money.

How reacted to the article

The press service of the Nadezhdin headquarters, after the release of the article “Novaya Gazeta Europe”, said that they collected more than 211 thousand signatures, taking away the best from them, and in order to have time to complete the work, they created several audit centers.

“For security reasons, employees of the audit centers could not have complete information about all organizational processes for the preparation of documents for submission. Therefore, for someone, the presence of other units, also engaged in checking the signatures, was a surprise. We understand that many employees wanted signatures selected by them in the final presentation. However, due to legislative restrictions, this is impossible. We again would like to emphasize that our team collected signatures of real people, that everyone could watch literally live, ”the press service said.

The leader of the “Civil Initiative” Andrei Nechaev called the article “Frank Lieuting”, saying that the party is confident as the signatures collected by it in support of Nadezhdin.

People named in the article ( probably about political strategists - approx. Medusa ) are also not related to the party. The assertion looks completely ridiculous that, having put forward a candidate, the party did not believe in the success of the project. Actually, hundreds of thousands of people who supported Nadezhdin, this is the undoubted success of the project, regardless of the decision of the CEC.

The authorities were clearly afraid to allow our candidate. Formally, the lack of signatures should be justified, although more than 200 thousand were really collected. We will challenge the claims to the signatures in the CEC, and in case of refusal - in court. Obviously, propaganda will lie about “drawing”, etc. It is strange that the once respected newspaper joined this campaign. Apparently, I really want to stop being undesirable .

The blogger and politician Maxim Katz, who was one of the first among the Russian opposition to leave signatures in support of Nadezhdin, called the “shameful” article “Novaya Gazeta Europe”. In a public dispute in the social network X with one of the authors of the material Andrei Serafimov, he said that, according to him, proven signatures were sewn in the “hut”. “The whole topic about the fact that unverified signatures were sewn there are fictitious with angry activists who were not allowed there at night,” Katz claims.

The politician accused the journalists of released the material on the day when the Central Election Commission had claims to signature in support of Nadezhdin's nomination. “Because registration or not is a purely political decision. Today everything became clear, ”Seraphim wrote in response. At the same time, he added that “I was still thinking of holding the text” if on February 5, Nadezhdin was not told about the mistakes.

“I have another information on this score that you are on the second salary where you should not be on it, and this timing is not random. <...> My sources even call me the amount, which was listed for the preparation of this stuffing, and sincerely rejoice, as they successfully shot down the wave of all this call. Maybe the amount has not reached you, I don’t know that. The move is very successful, I acted on many, ”Katz in turn said in turn. Serafimov rejected the accusations, calling them a "lie."