Allegations
of fraud in Russia's municipal elections continue to pile up. And
several undercover videos that have surfaced on the Internet now add
weight to the charges.
One of the most compelling was shot by
Aleksandr Tsivenko, an election observer at a polling station in the
southern city of Azov. It's led the local prosecutor's office to open
an investigation into possible ballot-box stuffing.
Tsivenko, an
observer for the A Just Russia party, said investigators questioned him
as a potential witness in the case. Anastasia Kirilenko of RFE/RL's
Russian Service tracked down Tsivenko, who describes what he saw -- and
filmed.
Video shot by Aleksandr Tsivenko, an election observer at a polling station in the southern city of Azov.
RFE/RL: Can you explain for us what happened at the polling station on October 11?
Aleksandr Tsivenko:
I was an observer at one of the polling stations, No. 1,638. I took a
camera and a video recorder with me. This was not my first election. I
have experience, and I know the electoral legislation.
At the
polling station, which was located in a kindergarten, there were
several storage spaces. You can see on the video that the doors had
been sealed with the stamp of the election commission.
In the
morning, I asked the head of the commission, Natalya Panchenko, and
other committee members what was in the back rooms. They said they were
just for storage. I asked if I could take a look but they said they
were closed. I said that they should then be sealed and at my
insistence, she sealed the room.
This can be seen on the video. The doors were sealed with a piece of paper and the seal of the election commission.
RFE/RL: When did you begin to suspect that falsification might be taking place?
A
man with a banner reading "Give back the elections, bastards " at a
protest against corruption in Moscow government ahead of the elections.
Tsivenko:
During the day, I observed no violations. The chairwoman tried to
remove a representative from the Communist Party and demanded that a
correspondent for the Communist Party newspaper "Azovskaya iskra" leave
the premises. It was clear that something dirty was happening, and we
began to look around.
There were five of us from A Just
Russia. We formed a circle around the ballot box and didn’t let anyone
put anything in it. Toward the end of the day, when it was time to
count the votes, the chairwoman announced that 900 ballots had been
issued. But observers had only counted 640 voters.
RFE/RL: How did you and other observers react to this?
Tsivenko:
We thought they were preparing to put extra ballots into the box, or
that they already had and we had missed it. Then the election
commission member from A Just Russia issued a written statement calling
for the voting-process to be suspended and a recount of the ballots
held.
We asked the chairwoman how many ballots had been
counted. But she unexpectedly grabbed a stack of ballots and ran toward
the storage room. Our observers blocked her path and held the door shut
with our feet. We didn’t let her in. Then, as recorded on the video, we
opened the back room and found on a table 300 ballots premarked for
United Russia. Can you see the clips?
RFE/RL: Yes. But the video is dark. Is there a mark for United Russia? It is difficult to discern.
Tsivenko: I
have high-quality originals. On the original it is visible that the
ballots are marked for United Russia, for their candidates.
RFE/RL: And you have shown investigators the original of this video?
Tsivenko: Yes.
RFE/RL: And what happened next at the polling station?
Tsivenko:
After shooting the video, we called in reinforcements. Sergei Osinov
from A Just Russia's regional office arrives. From the Communist Party,
a deputy from the local legislative assembly and State Duma Deputy
[Nikolai] Kolomeitsev also came. Representatives of the Liberal
Democratic Party of Russia, the Communist Party, and A Just Russia
gathered to figure out what to do next.
An investigator from
the prosecutor's office also came and recorded all the facts. He took
fingerprints and a wrote a report. Before the investigator arrived,
some police officers -- a major, a captain, and a lieutenant colonel --
kept trying to speak privately with the chairwoman of the precinct
election commission. They also wanted to take the ballots away in order
to fill out their reports.
RFE/RL: But this didn't happen?
Tsivenko: No, of course not. Who would give them to them?
Mikhail Trepashkin, a Moscow-based journalist and former FSB colonel,
tells in an interview in the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that
the FSB unit specialized in assassinations is still working.
Trepashkin's colleague Aleksandr Litvinenko, who was poisoned in London
in 2006, has revealed that he was employed by this special unit.
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