Analysts doubted the reflection of the visitors' actions on the election results in Chechnya.

People who visit voters before the elections in Chechnya should only inform them about the elections, the work of the polling station, and the opportunities to vote. At the same time, the visitors create the illusion of a struggle for turnout, as both the turnout data and the percentage of votes for Ramzan Kadyrov are not related to reality, analysts said.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", on August 31, the authorities of Chechnya named the dates for the visitors' work: from September 1 to 15, 2260 members of the precinct election commissions are to visit more than 260,000 households and inform residents about the elections. In the Sharoisky district, officials involved schoolchildren from the "Young Kadyrovites" movement in this work.

The chairperson of the "Civil Assistance" committee* Svetlana Gannushkina* reported that usually the visitors should only invite people to the elections.

"In my graduate youth, we were sent in pairs to apartments around Moscow State University. My friend and I went to apartments and invited people to the elections. For some reason, some residents liked it. We were treated to tea, talked on various topics. Apparently, we somehow diversified their lives. There was only one candidate, and it was pointless to campaign for him. Now the informers also, I think, should just inform about the place, time, and status of the election. If they bring brochures, they should have them about all candidates. Campaigning is conducted by each party independently. The other thing is that there are no independent parties participating in the elections anymore. This is confirmed by how they all collectively attacked "Yabloko." Obviously, the authorities were frightened by the mass support of this party during the process in the Supreme Court," - she told the correspondent of "Caucasian Knot".

As for Chechnya, according to the human rights activist, there have long been no real elections there.

"But it is still necessary to create a picture of the conduct. One of the parts of this picture has become the information campaign - invitations to the elections. And the turnout percentage does not depend on this information. If they want, they will write all 100%. Somewhere in the post-Soviet space, a turnout of 120% was announced. So, for reports, informers are not particularly needed. But some kind of entourage needs to be created," - said Gannushkina*.

Electoral expert David Kankiya* believes that the story with the visitors is characteristic of the whole country, not just Chechnya.

"In every region, election commissions are engaged in this. This is a program of the Central Election Commission, for which serious funds have been allocated. You can find hundreds of examples on the internet and social networks, including in the official accounts of the election commissions. Informing implies that they tell about the voting procedure, where the polling station is, and how to vote. Campaigning implies a call to vote for a specific candidate and party. The fact that they were forced to report on turnout is illegal - participation in elections is voluntary, and no one should force people to vote, especially a member of the election commission, for whom this is directly prohibited. But I think, in Chechnya, there is a slightly different attitude towards such things," - he told the correspondent of "Caucasian Knot".

Human rights defender, familiar with the situation in Chechnya, believes that visiting 260,000 homes is unrealistic, and there is no need for it.

"This is about 80-85 percent of the population of the republic. Most likely, the election commission is trying to create the illusion of high turnout in the elections. This also explains the coercion of all employees to be present at the polling stations," - he reported.

According to him, thevisitors are employees of budget institutions,but he does not know whether the visitors distribute campaign materials.

"Students can also be involved. I don't think there is a conflict of interest here. All these events are conducted by the election commission, of course, with the approval of the leadership of the republic. But they are completely pointless. Because the election results are known in advance, and the turnout percentage and the percentage of votes for Kadyrov are not lower than 99. But Ithink this is just an attempt to justify this high percentage because there have been many publications mocking these percentages," - explained the human rights defender.

Let us remind you that budget employees in Chechnya previously complained about coercion to participate in events related to voting. For example, on September 20, 2021, a teacher from the village of Samashki reported that teachers were forced to write explanations if they did not conduct explanatory work with the parents of students and did not convince them to participate in the voting. On July 1, 2020, employees of budget organizations reported a requirement to confirm participation in the voting with photographs from the polling stations, and a teacher from the Achkhoy-Martan district spoke about the schedules of teachers' duty at the polling stations.

* included by the Ministry of Justice of Russia in the register of foreign agents.

** the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.