As of: February 9, 2024, 5:25 a.m
By: Tadhg Nagel
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Russia insists on the narrative of Western interference.
Tensions are rising – and the elections are getting closer.
Moscow/Munich – Russia has had to listen to allegations of election interference several times – from the AfD to Brexit and the US elections.
Now Putin's Kremlin is turning the tables and accusing Western states of wanting to manipulate the 2024 Russian presidential election.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova makes serious accusations: The West is planning to “deprive Russian citizens living abroad of the opportunity to take part in the Russian presidential elections,” Zakharova said on Wednesday (February 7).
According to the Russian state news agency
Tass
, it believes that “obstacles are being deliberately created” to “deprive Russian citizens of the right to take part in the elections.”
Therefore, the “opportunities this year are much smaller than in the last election campaign”.
However, Zakharova left it open how she specifically envisions this influence.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
© IMAGO/Mikhail Tereshchenko
At the end of January, Sergei Lavrov's Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Russian citizens living in so-called "unfriendly" countries - i.e. countries that have imposed sanctions on Moscow due to the Ukraine war - would also be allowed to take part in the March election.
This was reported by Reuters,
among others
.
Russia is even hindering potential voters - but the West is supposed to be to blame
A few days earlier, the independent Russian media
The Moscow Times
published a report that offered a different perspective.
Accordingly, Russian authorities are taking measures to restrict the voting of their citizens living abroad.
Any Russian living abroad who wishes to vote must do so at an official polling station located in a Russian embassy or consulate.
However, due to the diplomatic fallout from the invasion of Ukraine, several Russian missions in Europe were closed.
In addition, the
Moscow Times
quoted Zakharova as saying, the number of polling stations abroad will be further reduced due to possible “security risks.”
So there will be fewer polling stations and no option to vote online.
Political dissidents could also risk being interrogated or imprisoned if they enter Russian embassies to vote.
The Central Election Commission acknowledged that reducing the number of polling stations could jeopardize the rights of Russian citizens living abroad.
However, she tried to justify the move by pointing to so-called “unfriendly” countries.
Putin propaganda smells “treason” – Are Western secret services harassing Russia’s citizens?
Nevertheless, Russia continues to claim that the West wants to interfere.
Before Zakharova's comments, Vasily Piskarev, chairman of the State Duma's Security and Anti-Corruption Committee, claimed that Western intelligence agencies were urging Russian citizens to download "untraceable" voting apps and "sign petitions to recognize the election as illegitimate, and to be trained as observers at polling stations.”
According to
Tass
, the chairman of the Security Committee said the commission had registered “attempts by Western intelligence services” to “illegally collect personal data of Russian citizens.”
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According to Piskarev, such actions are aimed not only at gross interference in the Russian elections, but also at “inducing citizens into confidential cooperation (treason) with all the ensuing legal consequences.”
“Fifth column” in the Russia election campaign – Putin’s fear of graduates of US educational programs
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR, claimed in mid-January that the US was planning to interfere in Vladimir Putin's election campaign, the British newspaper
The Guardian
reported.
According to the report, Naryshkin feared that Russian graduates of US educational programs - such as "Fulbright, summer work travel, high school flex and other exchange programs" - could be mobilized as a potential "fifth column".
It is "obvious that on the eve of the presidential elections in Russia, the Americans are using the smallest opportunity to 'shake up' the domestic political situation in our country," said Naryshkin.
However, according to the Guardian,
observers see these statements
as more of a “spy madness” on the part of the security services – after all, numerous academics and other researchers who are connected to foreign governments are involved in espionage investigations.
The independent legal NGO First Department told the
Guardian
that this trend was largely due to the Ukraine war and the security services' desire to show that they are successfully carrying out their counterintelligence task.
Our employee Tadhg Nagel wrote this article and then used an AI language model for optimization at his own discretion. All information has been carefully checked. Find out more about our AI principles here.