The Kremlin is not ready to accept depersonalized claims that citizens are forced to vote on the Russian constitutional amendments, but denounces any coercion and vows to transfer specific cases of violations to the Central Election Commission, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th June, 2020) The Kremlin is not ready to accept depersonalized claims that citizens are forced to vote on the Russian constitutional amendments, but denounces any coercion and vows to transfer specific cases of violations to the Central Election Commission, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
"You probably heard yesterday's words [by Russian President Vladimir] Putin ... that the main thing is complete legitimacy, the main thing is the transparency of citizens' support and voting ... We are not ready to accept depersonalized information. We are ready to accept specific information and transmit it to the Central Election Commission, because, of course, this is unacceptable," Peskov told reporters when asked to comment on reports from various sources that citizens employed by state institutions are forced to appear at the polling stations.
Peskov noted that the number of fake news reports about the vote on constitutional amendments is "off the charts."
Journalists asked the spokesman to comment on reports concerning the organization of a polling station in Vladivostok in the trunk of a car.
Earlier this week, a video emerged on social networks showing a car with an open trunk parked near a residential building in Vladivostok. A woman with a badge is standing near the car with a table. She confirms that people can vote on constitutional amendments there. The local authorities have said that residents of this building united and "ordered" the polling station to their home.
"If it is not a fake, you need to contact the election commission in Vladivostok. Moreover, there are organizations that are interested in a clean vote. It is necessary to find out whether a format for organizing voting is prohibited by law ... If we assume that this is really so, this is not coercion," Peskov said.
The spokesman also commented on the situation regarding an attempt by Russian journalist Pavel Lobkov to vote twice, saying that this in no way violates the legitimacy of the process.
On Thursday, Moscow police launched an administrative investigation after Lobkov, a reporter with the Dozhd tv channel, said that he had been able to vote twice, at his polling station and remotely, hours after the country started to vote on constitutional amendments.
Lobkov's ballot at the polling station has been already annulled, and his electronic vote will be taken into account. Deputy Chairman of the Russian Central Election Commission Nikolay Bulaev said that Lobkov should be administratively punished for a multiple vote attempt, and the commission's chairwoman, Ella Pamfilova, called the incident a provocation.
