Organizations close to the Kremlin intend to attract bloggers to observe the elections to the State Duma. About it informs Kommersant citing sources who know about the project.
The newspaper got the presentation of the project “Public observers-bloggers. EDG-2021 “, which was presented in May at the Public Chamber. The document says that among the tasks of the project is the formation of a positive array of messages about the voting process, prompt informing of citizens about the elections and neutralization of fakes.
Bloggers will have to talk about what is happening at the polling stations, “so that no one doubts the honesty of their will.” The project is supervised by the regional authorities and the Regional Governance Centers, which help the authorities in working with social networks and are subordinate to the Kremlin ANO “Dialogue”.
The source of the publication said that it is not so much about attracting already well-known bloggers, but about training observers to use social networks for LRC staff. It is assumed that observer bloggers will work in at least a third of the polling stations.
ANO “Dialogue” stated that they were not connected with the project. The Association of Internet Technologists of Russia, where many of the Dialogue and LRC staff are members, said they were holding “consultations” with regional authorities on this project.
As the newspaper notes, a number of regions have already begun work on the project.
Recall that in July, the CEC announced its intention to close public broadcasts from polling stations. Only election commissions, political parties, candidates and observation centers will have access to them. As the head of the CEC Ella Pamfilova said, “video surveillance is not an idle curiosity to watch some kind of movie lying on the couch.”