Russian opposition politicians are accustomed to looking for saboteur candidates with the same surname in order to confuse voters in opinion polls. It now appears that imitators are also changing their faces.
This is the problem Boris Vishnevsky, a senior member of the liberal Yabloko party, faces in his St. Petersburg constituency before the municipal elections later this month.
Vishnevsky already knows that his two opponents have changed their names, so they are also known as Boris Vishnevsky. This is to nominate a “double” to split the vote and pass the victory to the other. Updates to candidates’ common strategies.
But when a regional voting poster was published on Sunday, it showed something even more shocking: three almost indistinguishable Boris Vishnevsky (Boris Vishnevsky), all bald, gray and left. Goatee for sports. As a Facebook friend of Vishnevsky pointed out, the easiest way to identify the real Vishnevsky is that he is the only person who disdains a tie.
The real Vishnevsky said in an interview: “All this is to confuse the voters, so that they confuse the fake with the real, instead of the real Vishnevsky. They voted for one of the fakes. .” The fake, or at least the updated Vishnevskys could not be immediately contacted for comment.
Vishnevsky said that Vishnevsky’s opponents kept beards and mustaches for the photos, and may have submitted Photoshop-processed images to the election committee. It seems that at least one candidate shaved his head for this photo or digitally changed his hairline.
“I have never seen anything like this,” Vishnevsky said. Earlier, he referred to the “clone” tactic as “political fraud.”
It is believed that at least one of Vishnevsky’s opponents was only recently named Victor Bikoff, and his appearance in the photo has changed a lot.In official photos Use on the St. Petersburg government website, Bykov has thick hair and looks a few years younger than the photos submitted to the election committee.
Bykov’s identity is First disclosed by the Russian newspaper “New Daily”, And the St. Petersburg News website Later published A screenshot of a document it claimed showed that he changed his name on July 3. An election poster published by Vishnevsky confirmed that one of his opponents was previously named Victor Baikov.
Little is known about another opponent. His previous name was Alexei Shmelev, and he was reportedly a sales manager for a company in St. Petersburg. None of Vishnevsky’s opponents campaigned or made public appearances. Until this week, people didn’t even know what they looked like, and still not completely clear.
Vishnevsky said that he did not know the motives of these people against him, but he said: “I don’t think they would agree to embarrass themselves for free.”
“Dual” candidates often appear in the Russian election cycle. Although the ruling United Russia Party is expected to maintain a majority in the Duma, this situation may be unexpectedly cruel. The culmination of opposition to the unification of Russia and the growing support for the communist KPRF clearly frightened the government, and the nomination of clones can suck up valuable votes in a close competition.
The news media Meduza reported last week that Duma’s candidates are running In at least three Moscow regions, Mainly against Communists who have a great chance in the polls.
But the campaign against Vishnevsky is notable because his opponents legally changed their names (although the candidates still have different paternal names-the middle name is usually assigned to Russia based on the father’s name) Children), because there are two doubles instead of one, of course, because these people participate in political role-playing to disrupt voting.
“Every time an election is held, we will say that this is the dirtiest election in history,” Vishnevsky said when asked how this election compares to the past. “I believe we will say the same in the next election.”
