Moscow municipal deputy candidates receive calls from ‘journalists’ who don’t exist

Candidates for Moscow’s upcoming municipal council elections have begun receiving calls from people claiming to be journalists from Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Novaya Gazeta, Polit.ru, and other media outlets. In the calls, the “journalists” ask candidates about their views on sensitive issues such as the war in Ukraine and opposition politician Alexey Navalny’s “Smart Vote” initiative, Yabloko party representative Kirill Goncharov told Dozhd.

According to Goncharov, about 30 candidates throughout the city were contacted at the same time, with the calls coming from “strange numbers.” The names that were given by the callers do not appear on the websites of the outlets they claimed to work for, nor do they have any past journalistic work online.

“It’s obvious that the goal is to bring criminal charges against the candidates, or at least to intimidate them,” Goncharov wrote on Telegram. He said the candidates continue to receive the calls.