Sochi activists pointed out discrepancies in the lists of CPRF observers.
Some observers from the CPRF were only listed in the party lists and were actually not present at the polling stations in Sochi, and the reports collected after the voting could be used for reporting on their work, noted Sochi activists.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot", during the voting in Kuban, there were reports of disputed situations at polling stations. For instance, on September 20, activist Vitaly Cherkasov complained that at polling station No. 2014 in Krasnodar, observers would have to examine marks on ballots from a distance of about 10 meters. On September 19, observer Ekaterina Burdyukova called the police to the same station after she discovered a tenfold discrepancy between the number of records of early voters in the logs and the data submitted to the election commission.
In the Lazarevsky district of Sochi, the CPRF lists included observers who were actually not present at the stations, reported activist Olga Popova. "Observers were listed, but at 58 polling stations of the Lazarevskaya election commission, none from that list were present," she told a correspondent from "Caucasian Knot.".
According to Popova, this practice could be related to the formal inclusion of people in the lists of observers as well as subsequent reporting on their work. If an observer was not actually working at the station, documents about their presence might have been needed to confirm work paid from the party fund, she suggested.
It is necessary to compare the lists of CPRF observers with data on their actual presence at the stations and to find out what documents were collected after the voting and whether they were used for reporting, noted political scientist Elena Didenko. She suggested that if payments to observers were not actually made, the funds intended for this could have been embezzled. These assumptions require verification through the documents of the commissions and the party, Didenko emphasized.
One of the episodes regarding the collection of documents was confirmed by a representative of the district election commission No. 54 Veronika. According to her, one of the CPRF members came to the station and demanded to be provided with reports on early voting and voting outside the polling station. Commission members asked in what capacity and on what grounds he was requesting the documents. The CPRF member left without receiving them, after which he instructed a member of the election commission with a decisive vote from the CPRF to obtain these reports, Veronika told a correspondent from "Caucasian Knot.".
During the voting at the polling stations in the Khostinsky district, there were no observers from the CPRF, stated a member of the territorial election commission Valeria. "Throughout the voting at the stations in the Khostinsky district, I did not see a single observer from the CPRF," she told a correspondent from "Caucasian Knot." According to her, the stations were mainly staffed by commission members, including teachers, kindergarten educators, medical workers, and utility workers. "Not a single blogger during the voting, not a single media outlet," Valeria added.
In the Sochi branch of the CPRF, a conflict occurred in 2026, accompanied by the expulsion of party activists. On August 19, it became known that the court refused to reinstate Viktor Smirnov in the party, who stated that he was expelled along with like-minded individuals after criticizing the leadership of the city committee. On June 27, it became known that the Central Audit Commission of the CPRF upheld the expulsion of Inna Pagayeva and annulled the results of the Sochi party conference.
A representative from the CPRF Nikolai Shcherbakov did not confirm or deny in a comment to a correspondent from "Caucasian Knot" that he traveled to the stations and collected documents. He pointed to the need for interaction between observers and the party headquarters, but did not answer whether he personally collected reports, what specific documents he was interested in, and on whose instructions he acted. When asked about a possible connection between the collection of documents and payments to observers, Shcherbakov replied that this is an internal party matter and the correspondent has no right to inquire about it. He also did not answer whether a campaign headquarters was created in the Sochi branch after the expulsion of party activists and who was included in its composition.
The first secretary of the Sochi city committee of the CPRF Vladislav Zhironkin, who ran for the State Duma in the Southern single-member district No. 54, did not respond to a request from a correspondent from "Caucasian Knot.".