In Search of Candidates Who Dared to Run in the 2022 Elections

Confusion and diminished desire to participate in elections on the background of growing pressure are the main tendencies of the candidate nomination phase in the elections scheduled for the single day of voting 2022. That is the conclusion reached by the experts of the Golos movement, who prepared a report on the results of nominating candidates and party lists at the largest regional and local elections on September 11, 2022.

In the current difficult conditions, the indicators show the lowest level of formal competition since 2012: there are fewer parties entitled to participate in elections, fewer party lists have been nominated, and there are also few single-mandate candidates.

Perhaps because of the lack of candidates and political uncertainty, the major players, from United Russia to the Communists and liberals, were extremely quiet in their pre-campaign and candidate selection phases. "The ruling party" has always used the spring to hold primaries, but now these passed almost unnoticed, finally degrading to a purely formal performance.

Pressure on undesirable candidates has intensified: in 2022, new grounds for this appeared – radical restrictions on freedom of expression, and the associated initiation of administrative and criminal proceedings under articles pertaining to "discrediting" the Russian armed forces. It is possible to fall under pressure almost regardless of party affiliation: both liberals and communists are repressed.

Read more in the report (eng).