Statement by the Federal Political Committee, 22.09.2016

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO does not recognise the results of the election of the 7th State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation due to the following reasons:

The elections of 18 September, 2016, demonstrate a deep crisis the state is now in, as well as testify of the destructive developments in the society.

The key objective result of the voting day of 18 September was sharp decline in the turnout. Even according to the official data, the registered turnout was below 50 per cent, whereas according to unofficial but credible estimates, the actual voters’ turnout did not exceed 35 per cent. Even if we proceed from the official data, [this means that] 13 million less people came to the polls in 2016 as compared to [the turnout of] five years ago (52,700,994 as compared to 65,656,526 people). In Moscow, the turnout fell by 26.5 per cent, in St. Petersburg by 22 per cent.

This is a clear evidence that the gap between the government and the society, the state and the people has been growing, [it was] catalysation of [people’s] ‘retreat’ [from the state], continuation of the collapse and atomisation of the society resulting from the anti-European policy of the government and the cumulative effect of the failures of the post-Soviet reforms.

A specific factor, which led to a decrease in turnout were deliberate actions of the government, their purposeful deterring people from elections. In particular, transfer of the voting date [from December] to September, the format and duration of the debate on federal television channels, the behaviour of representatives of the parties-spoilers in the debate, the coverage of the campaign by the federal media, and so on, were targeted on provision of such a result.

In modern conditions, the Russian regime has been cultivating [in the people] a feeling of inability to change anything and foredoom to live in the proposed circumstances, instead of repeating mass-scale reprisals and reproduction of totalitarian methods of control over the individual. This model can be called “hybrid Stalinism”. Hybrid Stalinism is manifest not so much in adding the Stalinist and the nationalist faction to the ruling party in the Duma (these are only manifestations, and not the essence of the phenomenon), but in the very policies of the regime that use Bolshevik-Stalinist methods adjusted to the present and employing modern technologies, basing on the practices and methods of control over the society grounded on absolute lies and violence. The objective consequence of this policy is further delegitimisation of the state and its institutions. The power decomposes the society and destroys the state, cutting a branch while sitting on it, but it can not act differently already.

The official result of the election was reached by means of a large-scale manipulation with the public stance: first, a special operation to suppress the actual turnout of citizens was conducted, then the administrative resource was used so that to ensure forced voting of those who would cast their votes “properly”, and after closure of polling stations the official data on the turnout continued to grow. Meanwhile, the source of legitimacy lies in real people’s trust and support, rather than silence, indifference, and abstaining from coming to the polling stations of a part of people and forced voting by another part.

Proceeding from the given assessment of the electoral campaign and the situation it was conducted in, the Federal Political Committee of the Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO has decided to:

Due to willful and deliberate policies of the authorities targeted at [ensuring] non-participation of citizens in the electoral process, the majority of voters neglected the elections. For the first time in the new Russian history, the State Duma was formed by a clear minority of the population. Therefore, it does not represent the Russian society; it is not a body of representation of the people.

Manipulation with the turnout, mass-scale forced voting, as well as fraud during the vote count and issuing of [voting] protocols do not allow us to recognise the federal election conducted on 18 September fair and legitimate.

G.A.Yavlinsky,

Chairman of the Federal Political Committee