The sentence for the officials from Kaspiysk for voting with other people's accounts did not satisfy the residents of Dagestan.
The court in Kaspiysk sentenced three officials, an employee of the MFC, and a programmer to restrictions on freedom for periods ranging from two years to one year, finding them guilty of manipulating the accounts on "Gosuslugi" of six thousand residents, which were used for voting. Residents of Dagestan, commenting on the verdict on social media, considered the punishment too lenient and expressed concerns that access to accounts on "Gosuslugi" allows for other violations.
According to the case materials, in 2023, two deputy heads of the Kaspiysk administration, the head of the information security department, an employee of the MFC, and a programmer obtained the logins and insurance numbers of individual personal accounts (SNILS) of six thousand residents of Kaspiysk and created temporary passwords for accessing their personal accounts on "Gosuslugi" without the knowledge and consent of the owners. The head of the information security department of the city administration used this data to organize voting on behalf of the residents for the areas that were to be improved. Official IP addresses of the city administration and a local school were used for voting.
The Kaspiysk city court found three city hall employees, an employee of the multifunctional center (MFC), and a programmer guilty of unauthorized access to computer information by prior conspiracy. The court sentenced the two deputy heads of the administration to two years of restriction of freedom each, the head of the information security department to one year, and the MFC employee and the programmer to one and a half years each. The court also prohibited the three city hall employees from holding positions in public service and local government for the same periods, reported the press service of the Supreme Court of Dagestan, whose message was cited by "Interfax" on November 6.
An Instagram public account makhachkala_, which has about 257.7 thousand followers, also published a post about the sentencing of the Kaspiysk city hall employees for manipulating information from the "Gosuslugi" database. As of 08:55 Moscow time on November 8, this post had received 197 likes and 40 comments.
Residents of Dagestan considered the imposed punishment too lenient. "This means they can pull off any scam with housing. They were given very short sentences," said zalimhanismailov.
"Why is the punishment so light for such manipulations? It turns out that without a person's knowledge, they can do whatever they want with that person's data!" exclaimed user as_005_05.
"They should be sentenced to 15 years," suggested m63829464.
Other participants in the discussion expressed doubts about the security of personal data. "Is it really that easy to obtain population data? What kind of idiocy is this?" asked a user with the nickname dagestan_on1ine.
"They could do anything through "Gosuslugi". How can we trust them after this?" questioned bagamurm.
"Where is the promised security?" inquired user syvorotka_smysla.
From April 15 to May 31, 2023, residents of Kaspiysk voted for public areas that were to be improved in 2024 under the federal project "Formation of a Comfortable Urban Environment". Three projects won – an alley on Suleiman Stalsky Street from the bus station to Khalilov Street, an alley on Ordzhonikidze Street from Nazarov Street to Bayramov Street, and a park near houses No. 7–7B on Oktyabrskaya Street, reported the Ministry of Construction of Dagestan on its website on June 6, 2023.
"Caucasian Knot" also reported that residents and activists in Dagestan regularly complain about pressure on voters and violations during elections. For example, on September 17 of this year, ahead of the elections to the State Duma and the People's Assembly of Dagestan, employees of budget organizations reported calls from management to support one of the parties. A kindergarten worker Indira reported that she was urged to "go and vote for a certain party".
On September 17, 2021, the coordinator of the "Observers of Dagestan" movement Ruslan Akhalchi stated that members of the precinct commissions interfered with observers checking voters' documents. "There are cases when observers manage to check documents, and it turns out that the person who came does not have the right to vote at this polling station," he noted.