Dirty Tricks in the Duma Race
As I’ve mentioned here before, the Russia is in the middle of legislative elections. The elections are scheduled for December 2nd, but no one expects the process to be transparent or the electoral environment to be fair. The OSCE announced last week that it is unable to send its regular observation team to evaluate the Russian elections because delays on the part of Russia in terms of invitations and visas.
De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis, a blog that typically specializes on Russian history, had an interesting post today about the electoral environment. While there have been multiple reports about campaign literature of opposition parties being seized so that it may be examined for “extremist” messages, this is truly a new low in Russian politics (brackets are mine).
I was told yesterday of new leaflets posted on the walls in one of the districts of Samara. The text was like this: “Dear citizens, the Union of the Rightist Forces (SPS) [a pro-market, pro-democracy opposition party with support typically ranging from 3-6% under the old electoral rules] informs you that we have asked AIDS-infected people to participate in our campaign to disseminate printed materials and to participate in the public opinion polls as interviewers. Please, be tolerant towards them.”
Considering the AIDS-phobia, imagine the reaction of the average people when an SPS interviewer would knock their doors… I’ve never heard of such tricks before.
