Statement on Violations During the Collection of Signatures in Support of Vladimir Putin's Nomination

Since the official nomination of Vladimir Putin as a candidate for Russia's third consecutive presidential term (and fifth term overall), officials, official websites, accounts of government bodies, local governments, and state and municipal institutions have been buzzing with expressions of loyalty and posts and publications supporting Putin's nomination as the president. 

The "Map of Violations" of the "Golos" movement has already received dozens of reports of abuse of administrative resources from different regions. Some of the publications on websites and social networks have since been deleted, but their traces remain on the Internet. For instance, the Perm Region government portal published news about collecting signatures for Vladimir Putin, including the specified collection points. According to Perm's Kommersant, the news originated from the government's press service. In St. Petersburg, municipal groups inform subscribers about the commencement of signature collection for Vladimir Putin's nomination. In the Volkovskoye district, residents inquired about the possibility of signature collection for other candidates, to which the public forum administrators responded:

"We always support V.V. Putin - our President, ask your candidates about the information you are interested in".

Numerous similar publications have been reported from different regions as well.

Furthermore, the leaders of United Russia, Just Russia, and the “All-Russia People's Front” (ONF) have officially declared the participation of their legal entities in the signature collection process supporting Vladimir Putin's self-nomination. Additionally, other legal entities are also involved in the collection process across the regions. According to media reports, the following public organizations have announced their participation in the collection of signatures in Perm Krai: Medical Volunteers, Russian Student Detachments, Rural Youth, We Are Together, Victory Volunteers, and United Russia's Young Guard. 

Russian electoral legislation outlines rules for collecting signatures in support of candidates for the presidential election. Paragraph 7 of Article 36 of the "On the Election of the President of the Russian Federation" law prohibits "the participation of state authorities, local self-government bodies, management bodies of organizations of all forms of ownership, and members of election commissions with the right to cast votes in the collection of voters' signatures." It is also forbidden to force voters to sign and reward them in any form during the signature collection process, as well as to collect signatures at workplaces and places where salaries, pensions, allowances, scholarships, other social payments, and charitable assistance are distributed".

Article 61, Clause 7, also prohibits "free or unreasonably low remuneration by legal entities in works or services related to the election of the President of the Russian Federation aimed at achieving a specific result in the elections." Material support to a candidate for achieving a certain result in the elections must only come from the candidate's election fund.

In addition, a number of legislative acts prohibit the coercion of voters, as well as the use of official position by state and municipal employees, heads of enterprises and institutions (in particular, Article 17 of the Federal Law "On State Civil Service of the Russian Federation", Article 14 of the Federal Law "On Municipal Service in the Russian Federation", Article 60 of the Labor Code, Article 3 of the Federal Law "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights...").

The Golos movement calls Vladimir Putin's campaign headquarters, the presidential administration, and the heads of state and local authorities to halt the practice of coercion and illegal signature collection in support of his self-nomination. Each violation serves as grounds for refusing to register Vladimir Putin as a candidate for the Russian presidency.

 We also call on the Central Election Commission to respect the principle of equal rights of candidates and the principle of impartiality in the work of election commissions and to check the submitted signatures as thoroughly as it does for documents of opposition candidates.

We ask all Russian voters to report all instances of coercion for participation in signature collection, campaigning, or voting.