Elections have begun in Russia. Moscow election observers say hundreds of cyber attacks have been stopped.
On September 9 a three-day voting for various levels of government began in 82 Russian regions. The main and final election day will be September 11.
Gubernatorial elections will take place in 14 regions, and in Adygea the legislative assembly will choose a new head of the republic. Six constituent entities of the Russian Federation will elect new parliaments. And 12 regions, including Moscow, are holding municipal elections.
Moscow and a number of other urban regions will use electronic voting. The Moscow headquarters for election observation reported that the system has successfully repelled more than 350 attacks by hackers.
Independent politicians have been persecuted in Moscow ahead of these elections. They were held accountable en masse for displaying prohibited symbols–essentially, this means speaking about “smart voting,” which is regarded as a symbol of Alexey Navalny’s prohibited movement. At the end of August Sergei Burtseva, a candidate for municipal deputy, was beaten, sustaining a fractured spine.
In mid-August the human rights group Net Freedoms Project counted 85 instances throughout Russia (and 53 in Moscow) of administrative or criminal prosecution of independent candidates, as well as those whom authorities consider potential opponents in the elections.
