Status: 17.09.2021 10:39 a.m.
With “smart voting”, Kremlin critic Navalny wants to make life difficult for the Russian government in the parliamentary elections. The associated app has now disappeared from the Apple and Google stores. The opposition senses censorship.
At the beginning of the parliamentary elections in Russia, the Internet companies Google and Apple removed the app for the “Smart Voting” protest procedure of the imprisoned government critic Alexej Navalnyaus from their stores. The Nawalnys team announced.
Navalny had developed the app in order to break the power monopoly of the ruling party United Russia. Its aim is to help form local opposition alliances against candidates from the ruling United Russia party in parliamentary elections, by allowing voters to vote for any candidate – except that of the Kremlin party.
“Shameful Act of Political Censorship”
The chairman of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, criticized Google and Apple for removing the app from stores in Russia. The corporations are violating basic human rights, he wrote on Twitter. “The authoritarian Russian government and propaganda will be delighted,” wrote Zhdanov. “Taking the Navalny app out of the app stores is a shameful act of political censorship.”
The Russian supervisory authority Roskomnadzor had threatened Google and Apple with criminal prosecution and heavy fines. Should the app continue to be available in Russia, this could be seen as interference in the Russian elections.
The associated homepage has been blocked in Russia for days. The authorities also prohibited the Internet search engines Google and Yandex from displaying the term “Smart Voting” in search results. Nawalny’s supporters are now campaigning for the electorate to be reached via Telegram and Youtube.
Elections last until Sunday
The Russian authorities had classified all organizations with ties to Navalny as extremist. Since then, supporters and donors of the Kremlin critic have been on the same level as members of jihadist organizations such as the “Islamic State” or Al-Qaeda, and they face prosecution. Many of Navalny’s confidants are now living abroad or are under arrest, Navalny himself is currently serving two and a half years in a prison camp in a penal colony east of Moscow. Other prominent Kremlin opponents were excluded from the election.
The election began in the morning with the opening of the polling stations in the Chukotka and Kamchatka regions to the east. Up to and including Sunday, around 110 million people are called to vote on the 450 seats in the Duma. In many regions, regional and city parliaments are elected at the same time. United Russia wants to defend its absolute majority in the State Duma. For the first time, voting can also be done electronically in some regions of the country.