OREANDA-NEWS. December 21, 2011. The Ministry of the Interior and the Investigative Committee submitted to the President of Russia a report on established violations during the election campaign and voting process for the State Duma election of December 4, 2011.

According to the Interior Ministry, its officers submitted reports on 2091 administrative violations during the election campaign. The majority of the violations were registered in Moscow (462), Stavropol Territory (96), and the Samara (88), Sverdlovsk (80) and Novosibirsk (64) regions.

The most wide-spread violations were the unlawful production and use of campaigning materials (1153), breach of the procedures for holding mass rallies (511), campaigning by unauthorised individuals (114), deliberate destruction of or damage to print materials (91), and campaign activities in locations prohibited by law (88).

Since the start of the campaign period, 53 criminal suits have been instigated in 27 of Russia’s federal constituent entities? First of all in the Moscow (5), Sverdlovsk (5) and Vladimir (4) regions. Currently, perpetrators have been identified in ten of these criminal cases. In five cases, the criminal proceedings have been ceased, suspected, or terminated by the courts.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation received 259 notifications containing allegations of crimes committed during the election campaign. Investigations have been performed concerning all of them. According to the Investigative Committee, the majority of the notifications were received from people and members of electoral commissions. A Just Russia and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation filed most of the complaints.

The Investigative Committee is investigating into nine complaints of voting falsification in Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk Regions, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area, Stavropol Territory, and the republics of Bashkortostan, Kalmykia, and North Ossetia-Alania. Four investigations are underway concerning voter bribery (in Leningrad, Tambov and Kaliningrad regions, and in St Petersburg). Five investigations are in progress on allegations of ballot-stuffing (in Leningrad and Nizhny Novgorod regions, Moscow and the republics of Bashkortostan and Tuva). Complaints are also being verified on proxy voting, coercion to vote for a particular party, and the sale of absentee ballots.

The President instructed law enforcement agencies to report on the results of the on-going investigations.