The wool sales company that registered the Smart Voting brand is linked to the security forces – media

The Stavropol wool company Vulintrade, at whose suit the court banned Yandex and Google from displaying the phrase “smart voting”, is associated with the security forces. About it writes Russian service of the BBC.

The company was originally registered in Makhachkala and was called Regul, and its founder was a former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Ashur Ashurov. In the GetContact application, its number is most often indicated with the abbreviation “UBEP” – we are talking about the economic security department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Dagestan, where Ashurov worked. In 2017, he retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In 2019 the company “Regul” crossed over family of the Dagestani businessman Abdula Umarov. At the same time, “Regul” was renamed to “Wulintertrade”. “Legally, Smart Voting is a trademark. It was a whim [зарегистрировать такую марку], that’s how I decided to do it. Don’t I have the right to do that? ”Umarov said. When asked whether the authorities helped him register the Smart Voting brand, Umarov could not answer.

In the contact details of the abattoir (LLC “Dinior”), which was previously owned by Umarov, journalists discovered number of another employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Marat Mazdogov. In 2011, he worked in the anti-extremism unit in Kabardino-Balkaria. In 2016 Mazdogov mentioned in open sources as a “representative of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the North Caucasian District.”

In a conversation with the BBC Mazdogov confirmed, which to this day works in the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At the same time, according to him, he hears about “Diniore” for the first time. The silovik also noted that he did not know Umarov. Umarov, in turn, said that he did not know Mazdogov and had no idea how his number ended up in the contact information.

“Wulintertrade” applied for registration of the Smart Voting brand at the end of June, and a month later, on July 27, received the approval of Rospatent. In July, the company registered the Smart Voting trademark, identical to the one used by Alexei Navalny’s project. On September 1, Wulintertrade went to court.

The trial the day before, September 5, banned Google and Yandex to show in search results the phrase “smart vote” as an interim measure in the claim of a wool company. In Russia also started block the site of “Smart Voting”. How indicated in Roskomnadzor, this decision was made due to the site’s connection with FBK.