Police summon investigative reporter after story about planned voter fraud in Moscow
Anti-extremism police in Moscow have summoned Dozhd correspondent Anton Baev for questioning in connection with a story he authored earlier this week about local scammers using SIM cards and personal data stolen from senior citizens to create fake online voting accounts to falsify results in Russia’s upcoming plebiscite on constitutional amendments.
Moscow law enforcement opened a criminal investigation into the voting scheme on June 17. That night, officers came to Dozhd’s studio and tried to take Baev in for questioning. After some confusion, police interrogated him outside the studio, instead.
Earlier this week, Dozhd reported that Muscovites are being offered small sums of money to register accounts at mos.ru and vote in favor of new constitutional amendments, including reforms that will allow Vladimir Putin to remain president until 2036.
On June 18, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Dozhd’s report “absolute nonsense.”