Ivan Shukshin. Photo: Agentstvo
An electoral analyst who uncovered widespread incidents of ballot-stuffing in March’s presidential election has been placed on Russia’s wanted list for drug offences, independent media outlet Agentstvo reported on Thursday.
Ivan Shukshin, who no longer lives in Russia, has publicly rejected the allegations against him, stressing that until now a civil suit against him for taking part in a rally in support of late opposition leader Alexey Navalny had been his only run-in with the law, and telling Agentstvo that he believed the criminal case against him was retaliation for his work on the elections.
Shukshin also suggested that the charges against him could be a simple bureaucratic error, pointing out that the articles of the criminal code for drug dealing and defamation "differ by only one digit”, adding that when he spoke to an investigator by telephone, he was told the charges related to the election. “They couldn’t correct three numbers. The fools,” he wrote on X.
Shukshin’s analysis of the 2024 presidential election showed that incumbent President Vladimir Putin received an “unprecedented” 22 million extra votes thanks to ballot-stuffing, though Novaya Gazeta Europe subsequently calculated that Putin may have received as many as 31 million fake votes in total.
According to the official election results published by Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC), Putin secured 87.28% of the vote. CEC head Ella Pamfilova said that over 87.1 million Russians — 77.44% of the eligible electorate — had voted, a record turnout for a Russian presidential election in the modern era.
