DISINFO: West sees elections in Russia as opportunity to create chaos
SUMMARY
The Western states, especially the USA, see the elections in Russia as an opportunity to create chaos. Apparently, their plan regarding both Navalny and elections did not work out.
RESPONSE
Disinformation claim which appeared in the context of 2021 State Duma election.
No evidence is provided to support the claims.
There are, however, legitimate concerns about the freedom of these elections. The Golos election-monitoring organisation recorded some 2,000 procedural violations on the first day of voting. According to the Golos report, mass arrivals of people in uniform to cast their votes was particularly widespread, suggesting that the government was mobilsing public employees to secure a victory for the ruling United Russia party.
See here the EU declaration following the Duma elections.
According to Amnesty International, ahead of the elections the Russian authorities both stepped up repression against their critics and used ever more direct ways of eliminating their political opponents. In previous elections, the main tools for eliminating unwanted candidates were refusals to register them or their disqualification for minor or imaginary infringements of the electoral process. This time, the authorities are applying a much more heavy-handed and sinister approach.
More and more media outlets in Russia are being arbitrarily declared 'foreign agents', essentially restricting freedom of the press and freedom of expression. Attempts to censor the content online are also increasing with ever more court cases against platform operators; examples here, here and here.
Read similar cases in our database that claims that the West wants to influence elections in Russia and supports anti-State powers; or that the West trying to interfere in Russia’s legislative elections; or that for the West, Russian elections will always be "bad"; or that foreign election monitors did not notice a big difference between the elections in the EU and in Russia.