Apple and Google must not be complicit in silencing Alexei Navalny

The run-up to the Sept. 19 election to the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, has been filled with pressure tactics by the Kremlin to keep opposition candidates off the ballot and to avoid scrutiny on election day. The independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, one of those also labeled a foreign agent, on Sept. 2 reported that it obtained an audio recording of poll workers in Korolyov, outside of Moscow, being trained to rig the vote on election day. According to a summary of the audio by the news outlet Meduza, also labeled a foreign agent, the election supervisor tasks the poll workers with providing United Russia with 42 to 45 percent of the vote, and explains to them how to falsify the voting results. Meduza reports the supervisor tells the election workers: “There was a big request from the city authorities — to do everything possible so that it all goes smoothly, without comments and complaints. We don’t want to have to justify ourselves, testify, or talk to prosecutors. We are interested in a specific number and a specific party: 42-45 percent according to the party list. I hope that they don’t have enough strength to catch us. . . . We have to make sure that there’s only our people at the polling station, no one else.”