Simply wonderful. A perfect example of just how strong Putin’s party, United Russia, is, and how confident it is in its own strength.
Our favorite, United Russia’s secretary general Sergei Neverov — a summer-house owner and the son-in-law of a wealthy mother-in-law — is running in a single-member district in Smolensk Region.
A wonderful region, the heart of Russia. And Neverov wants to show that he can win precisely there, not in somewhere like Chechnya or Mordovia. The problem, however, is that our Sergei Neverov is feeling a bit nervous. In the previous election, United Russia got only 36% of the vote in the region, and in the central part of the city, just 28%.
And of course, the secretary general absolutely cannot afford to lose.
A solution was quickly found: help will come from abroad. Neverov’s district is being assigned 41,000 voters from Transnistria (the breakaway Moldovan region). Go ahead, opposition activists, try campaigning there — and then try placing observers at the polling stations. Obviously, among those 41,000 overseas voters there will be 80% turnout and 80% voting for Neverov, which neatly guarantees the required result.
Milov lays out all the details here — have a read. By the way, the same thing is happening in Irkutsk. As you may recall, the United Russia candidate there was denied the governorship, so now the votes of Siberians are being diluted with votes from residents of Bender (a city in Transnistria), located 6,000 kilometers away.
P.S. So this video should be sent to your contacts not only in Smolensk Region, but in Transnistria as well.
