No Surprises Here

On the eve of the State Duma elections, the independent investigative media outlet Vazhnye Istory (“Important Stories”) published an overview of Russia’s new federal voting system. The publication obtained access to data on the infrastructure of the company that developed the system, named GAS Vibori ("Elections") 2.0. Hackers accessed and analyzed nearly 200 gigabytes of technical documentation, internal correspondence, and developers’ conference calls. Their main conclusion was that, despite the Central Election Commission’s statements, the system does not guarantee the transparency and integrity of Russia's vote. 

According to Vazhnye Istory, GAS Vibori 2.0 cost the Russian budget at least R20.5 billion ($240 million). The system was created to fully automate elections using domestic software and hardware, as has been repeatedly stated publicly. However, the programmers themselves expressed skepticism about this in their work chat rooms. The correspondence indicated that developers continue to rely heavily on foreign programming languages, platforms (Kafka, Java), and commercial task management services (Jira, Confluence). Company employees also reported that the domestic hardware overheats significantly, and that the Russian software regularly crashes. Because of this, programmers are forced to work around the clock, putting in overtime to fix thousands of critical errors in the middle of the voting process.

Connecting the occupied Ukrainian territories to the databases proved to be a separate problem. There was confusion regarding addresses; the tracking systems recorded tens of thousands of incidents where the system ignored entire streets, treating them as uninhabited. Further, an analysis of the database revealed that the lists included at least 104,000 deceased citizens.

Moreover, it turned out that system administrators could manually upload third-party files containing applications that could artificially inflate voter turnout. And the data from the protocols entered into the system could be edited without restriction, altering the results.

The Vazhnye Istory report resonated as confirmation of the possibility of fraud, based on specific technical data, although overall these conclusions, of course, come as no surprise to anyone.

At the end of Russia's three-day voting period, the internet was flooded with evidence highlighting absurdities that accompanied the polling. Particularly telling was a video featuring the head of a polling station in St. Petersburg. He cheerfully crumples and stomps on ballots before stuffing them into the secure envelope required by protocol. Off-camera someone says “Maybe you shouldn’t use your feet; they still have to be counted,” to which another replies, “Yeah, but it was all counted in advance.”

Afterward, as if to confirm what was said, the polling station head and a colleague spend a long time cramming an excessive number of ballots into a single envelope-bag, crumpling and packing them down like trash. Both are smiling and joking as they do so, either trying to hide their embarrassment or simply happy that the workday is over.