Top

Russia Parliamentary Elections

March 2, 2012 by · Comments Off on Russia Parliamentary Elections 

Russia Parliamentary Elections, Three months after Russia’s parliamentary elections were accompanied by widespread cries of fraud, Russians go the polls Sunday in the country’s presidential contest. Anger over the December vote has been channeled into a massive grassroots movement of citizen election monitors.

Rows upon rows of Russians take lecture notes in a university classroom on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

They are not college students. They are just 50 faces from an army of 200,000 Russians who have volunteered to work as poll watchers, looking out for fraud when Russians vote for president on Sunday.

And they do more than just listen to lectures. There’s also a training video, produced by ad copy writer Serob Khachatryan.

“Those who have signed up to be an observer visit training sessions, read different brochures. We do something really light, simple and easily digestible,” said Khachatryan.

Anna Bugrova says that unchecked fraud in the December parliamentary elections pushed her to action:

“I realized that there was massive fraud. Then I started reading more about it, and, as a result, I am here,” said Bugrova.

Bottom