Fake observation at Russian elections: Golos portraits the "electoral tourists"

According to the Central Election Commission of Russia, 774 international observers from 63 countries were accredited in Russia for the 2016 State Duma elections. 

There were no official international observers at the September 10, 2017 elections, but election commissions and media reported about a group of foreigners who came to Russia with the informal status of “foreign experts.” Despite the fact that they had no official status of international/foreign observers, and, according to Russian law, could not be present in the voting premises, they were welcomed by the election commissions and allowed to spend time at the polling stations.

Since such electoral tourists should also be expected at the Russian presidential elections scheduled for March 2018, Golos decided to analyze this phenomenon. We sourced our information from the local and foreign media.

Since the “foreign experts” did not receive the official status of international/foreign observers envisioned by the Russian legislation, there is no official list of these persons. Detailed media monitoring allowed Golos specialists to discover approximately 20 names. More than half of the visitors were from France and Italy. Almost all of the “observers” were from the European Union, save for two citizens of South Korea and one US citizen.

Please find the full report here.