DISINFO: There was an unprecedented level of foreign interference in the election to the Moscow City Duma
SUMMARY
No one pays attention to who works with whom. Deutsche Welle, BBC, Navalny, Venediktov and so on, all worked in unison. And this is perceived as normal. That is, there was an unprecedented level of foreign interference in Moscow City Duma elections.
RESPONSE
Unfounded conspiracy theory on foreign influence in Russian politics, and the US and/or other actors standing behind any expressions of popular discontent. Similar cases can be found here and here. Andrei Kolesnikov, a political analyst at the Carnegie thinktank Moscow Centre, told Euronews that "External interference is mythologem. This is typical of the current government and typical of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, who believes that no one can take to the streets of their own free will: (for him) Maidan was organised by the US and so are these protests." At the same time, before the elections Russian police suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations across Moscow, detaining around 1,000 people. Meanwhile, a Levada Centre poll published on 6 August showed that a relative majority of Muscovites supported the protests (37% in favour, versus 27% against). A nationwide poll released by the Levada Center on 3 September showed that a majority of Russians (58%) don’t believe the government propaganda line about Moscow protests being fomented by the West.