MOSCOW — When a small-town mayor from
Russia’s governing party recently offered tens of thousands of dollars in government cash to a veterans group in exchange for votes in next month’s parliamentary elections, it appeared to be business as usual.
Violations of
Russia’s election rules no longer evoke much surprise here, and in the past the episode would have probably gone unnoticed, or at least unpunished.
But this is the era of the smartphone.
Someone recorded the mayor’s speech and uploaded
the video to
YouTube. Along with the promise of cash was a threat to cut off the elderly veterans if they failed to vote for the party,
United Russia, which is led by Prime Minister
Vladimir V. Putin.
“If people don’t support the party that is actually doing something, what’s the point of financing them?” the mayor, Denis V. Agashin, asked veterans at a gathering in the town of Izhevsk, according to the video. “If this is the case, it’s clear the people don’t need anything.”
The video was widely circulated, provoking calls for the mayor’s ouster. Last week a court found him guilty of breaking election rules and fined him. His opponents have vowed to seek harsher disciplinary measures.
It was a small victory in the fight against electoral malfeasance in Russia, one that has underscored the increasing potency of a new kind of
election monitor here: common citizens armed with smartphones, digital recorders and cameras.
Such activity comes at an inauspicious time for United Russia. Flagging in the polls, the party has become vulnerable to attacks among Russia’s typically raucous and increasingly influential Internet commentariat.
A slogan adopted by bloggers describing United Russia as “the party of swindlers and thieves” has become such a prominent Internet meme that it occasionally appears as a top hit when Googling the party’s name.
The unfettered online criticism has increasingly spilled into the real world. When Mr. Putin stepped into the ring for a speech after watching a
mixed martial arts match last weekend, he was booed by the crowd on national television, a practically unprecedented public swipe at Russia’s most powerful politician. An
unedited clip quickly whipped through the blogosphere.
The clip of Mr. Agashin is one of several videos documenting violations to spread across the Internet ahead of the parliamentary elections, forcing the authorities to confront dirty electioneering, in particular by United Russia, that in the past they tended to dismiss.
“With video clips that have attracted the most attention, we see that the authorities are prepared to make what for them are unpleasant decisions, like punishing a specific official,” said Grigory Melkonyants, the deputy director of Golos, an independent election-monitoring group in Russia. “Citizens see that thanks to these video clips they can have influence. This is becoming a tool for putting pressure on the authorities.”
Mr. Melkonyants said he had observed a marked increase in the use of video and other media to record violations in the past year.
Golos maintains a Web site where Russians can file complaints about campaign abuses. Of the 2,000 or so already recorded, about 100 provide video evidence, and others include audio files and photographs.
The materials show officials engaging in the types of nefarious electioneering long criticized by government opponents, but almost never widely publicized. In one video and separate audio file,
election officials in Murmansk appear to promise up to $50 to those who vote for United Russia. In another, a crowd of mostly young people carrying United Russia banners
disrupts an opposition campaign rally in the town of Sterlitamak, blowing vuvuzelas and playing music through loudspeakers.
Then there is the mayor of Novokuznetsk, who tells local business leaders in
one clip to “work with your employees to guarantee a significant result” for United Russia. In the past, there have been numerous complaints about employers threatening workers with disciplinary measures like docking their pay or worse for failing to support the party.
One of the most talked about recent videos was uploaded to the Web this month by Matvei K. Tsivinyuk, 15, a student from Krasnoyarsk,
who secretly recorded a run-in with his principal after he defaced a United Russia poster hung in a school hallway.
Confronted by the student about what he called illegal
political campaigning — other political parties were not represented at the school — the principal, identified as Aleksandra Pronina, lashed out in anger.
“You have ruined several posters already,” Ms. Pronina said in the video, her voice at times rising to a scream. “If you ruin another one, I will go to the police. Read the biography of
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. When he disagreed with something, he was expelled from school.”
The video became so popular, it was picked up by many national media outlets. In response, the local deputy governor called the principal’s reaction “overkill,” according to the news agency
Ria Novosti, though he also criticized the student’s protest as “militant ignorance and meanness.”
Several days after the video was posted, the school reportedly hung posters for each of the political parties participating in next month’s elections.
Under pressure, United Russia has started its own campaign to address possible election violations, though it seems to be solely focused on the party’s opponents.
The pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi has promised to send thousands of observers to Moscow during the elections to “prevent provocations during the vote and tallying,” the group said in a statement on its Web site.
“We will not allow provocateurs to raise doubts about the people’s support for United Russia,” Maria Kislitsyna, a Nashi leader, said in the statement.
United Russia has created its own
site where users can file complaints about election violations.
The Communist Party is accused in several postings of displaying campaign materials outside of designated areas in some cities. Other parties are accused of trying to pay off voters with, for example, watches, perfume, potatoes and bars of soap.
The site allows for complaints to be filed against all parties participating in the election — except United Russia.
