Sochi state servants fear to complain about compulsion to voting

Despite the dissatisfaction of Sochi residents with coercion to participate in the presidential election, no official complaints were filed by voters, the opposition reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that under threat of sanctions, employers ordered Sochi public employees to come to vote at the presidential election on March 18 and then to submit "flyers" with the inscription reading: "Thank you for your choice!" as a proof of voting.

On March 18, Mikhail Okhrimenko, an advocate of the Kuban Bar Association, came to vote at the polling station No. 46-62 in the Winter Theatre. According to him, he "was shocked" by what he had seen.

"There were huge crowds of people. It was clear that all of them had come there not on their own, but to get some sort of a 'ticket' to 'report to their chiefs.' Later, I figured out that public employees were staying in lines to get those 'tickets' and that they had come there not on their own," Mikhail Okhrimenko told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

All residents of Sochi interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on March 18, who got the "flyers," reported their unwillingness to file to any institution formal complaints about compulsion to vote.

Voters complained about coercion, "but no one dared to file a complaint," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was confirmed by Iren Ilyenkova, a member of the "Yabloko" Party, a representative of Grigory Yavlinsky in Kuban.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.