MOSCOW — Two activists from an unregistered Russian opposition party were briefly detained on November 8 for distributing brochures explaining how to sabotage the December State Duma elections, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reports.
The two, from the Party of People’s Liberty (PARNAS) were held for 1 1/2 hours before being released.
PARNAS press secretary Yelena Dikun told RFE/RL that Olga Nikonova and Yury Kosmynin were detained at a metro station in Moscow while distributing a brochure entitled “Putin. Corruption” and leaflets with instructions on how to vote in the State Duma elections scheduled for December 4.
The leaflets call on voters to vote against all political parties listed on ballot papers and explain how to do so, given that the “against all” option was removed from ballot papers for Russian elections in 2004.
The leaflets instruct voters to mark a cross against all parties listed, then diagonally strike across the whole ballot paper.
Voters are then requested to photograph their ballot papers and send an mms message to 4december@svobodanaroda.org before dropping the completed ballot paper into the ballot box.
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