'Prison House' wants another round of elections in Moscow

Freedom House commented on the elections held in Russia on September 8. For some reason, Freedom House was interested only in the vote in Moscow. American human rights activists unwillingly acknowledged "some improvement."

'Prison House' wants another round of elections in Moscow. 51089.jpeg

But in the very next sentence they called to postpone the inauguration of Sergei Sobyanin scheduled for September 12 until such time when all outstanding issues are resolved.

Freedom House cited the association The Voice that reported that Sobyanin received 49.6 percent of the vote. These data are not disputed. There are no doubts about "sufficiently reliable" reports of fraud, especially in home-based voting.

Of course, the achievement of Alexei Navalny who won more votes than predicted was acknowledged.  Freedom House summarized that to ensure a fair election there was a need to either conduct a recount or the second round of the election.

Considering the sources of funding of the organization, the statement could be described as an informal response of the United States to September 8 election in Russia. Comments on the official level may not even follow as these were regional elections.

The election in the Russian capital was the only one that attracted attention. Does this mean that there are no complaints about the rest of Russia's 79 regions that also voted on September 8? Or is this attention explained by one candidate only? "To my memory, there has not been a single statement of Freedom House that would be confirmed," political adviser Anatoly Wasserman told Pravda.Ru. According to him, "if Freedom House claims that the second round is possible, it means Sobyanin's victory in the first round is beyond doubt."

"In reality there is not a slightest reason for scheduling the second round," he stressed. "They can talk about scary, evil violators who stole the victory ad nauseum, but generally it is sufficient that there is not a single official statement of voting rules violations."

"Of course, Freedom House may be upset for a long time that the American candidate has lost. And I hope that such will be the fate of all future U.S. candidates in the Russian elections," said Anatoly Wasserman.

"I always wonder about organizations like Freedom House and The Voice. What kind of people do they involve, on what basis do they interfere in the internal affairs of Russia?" said the founder of the site Oper.ru Dmitry Puchkov.

"I think our citizens are capable of counting the votes on their own, without foreign assistance. Sobyanin has won, it is clear in my opinion," he told Pravda.Ru.

"This is not what we need to talk about. We need to talk about the fact that 70 percent of the people have not come to the polls. This means that these citizens are satisfied with the current state of affairs. Among the remaining 30 percent the majority voted for Sobyanin, there are no doubts in this regard," said Dmitry Puchkov.

"The fact that Navalny received his 8-9 per cent (of the total number of votes in Moscow) is normal. Any society has exactly this number of people with non-traditional orientation, including the political one. Learn how to lose with dignity," he said.

Anton Ponomarev

Pravda.Ru 

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