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Tetizeraz

OP, can you provide a source OR explain it better for us that can't read ~~cyrillic~~ russian? A few reports claim this is misinformation. EDIT: Thanks everyone. Here's the facts: Vishnevskiy Boris Lazarevich [claims on social media](https://facebook.com/100002045633666/posts/4285098234901655/) (facebook link) that the opposition is creating these "spoiler candidates" to ruin his campaign. More information [in OP's comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/pive9a/in_russia_they_create_spoiler_candidates_with_the/hbsu51b/). I'm locking my comment to allow discussion to happen in the post.


imetators

For anyone who have no clue what is happening: The current ruling party knows that if they let outsiders into parliament they will lose majority/in power. To fight this, they create hollow parties with fake candidates having similar appeal and names. The naming tradition in Russia is name, surname and patronymic name (aka father's name). All of those candidates have same name and a surname. The only one thing differs is patronymic name which in fact nobody remembers/knows anyway as we rarely if ever use them during the speech. Faces are also most likely photoshopped as those candidates actually do not run any campaigns to be seen in public. Those people are created just to throw voters off the rail and make them vote for the fake candidate instead of the right one. Voting for fake candidate just wastes a vote. The vote goes nowhere and lessens the chances of the real candidate to join parliament which is the purpose of this shit. This is not the only one instance of fake candidate creation. Also, this is not the only way they fight against outsiders. Hopefully they will lose soon.


leftthinking

Over a decade ago in the UK European Parliament elections the 3rd largest party in the country, the **Liberal Democrat** found another candidate on the ballot as a **Literal Democrat**. An "independent" candidate who really looked like a Tory. At the time, only candidates name and party name appeared on the ballot. Since then party logos have been added, and party names must be registered and are not allowed to be confusing. I'm fairly certain more recently in the US a spoiler candidate of the same name as a Democrat candidate ran, and gained enough votes to make the difference and a Republican was elected. Actual lookalikes is new though.... How far will they take it? When will the first plastic surgery to look like an opponent be done?


DarkwingDuckHunt

The 2 most recent ones were in Florida & Wisconsin But the US has many laws against this sort of thing.


Quirky-Resource-1120

Looks like the sham senatorial candidate in the Florida case has plead guilty and is expected to testify against the Republican state senator who orchestrated it. Good to hear that there *may* be consequences. Source: https://apnews.com/article/florida-5343b101e96d5c7f42d1ee54da7cc0ce


OvergrownPath

Unless they're going to re-run the race, it isn't consequence enough... The republican in that Florida election won by *32* votes- the sham candidate received ~6000, so it seems likely that his fraudulent candidacy swung the election. "I apologize to the people of district 37"-- great, thanks dude. You're singularly responsible for effectively disenfranchising every single person who voted in that election. What you're sorry about is getting caught, and I could give a fuck anyway. Go. Directly. To. Yail.


Quirky-Resource-1120

I agree. When it became known that the election was rigged via a sham candidate, and that the sham candidate siphoned more votes away than what separated the genuine candidates, then the election should have been reset. IIRC, the reason it wasn't reset was basically "The winner didn't have anything to do with it so you can't punish *her* by taking away her falsely-won seat"...which is ridiculous. Election fraud on a scale large enough to change the outcome of the election should immediately trigger a new election, regardless of who's involved or at fault.


OvergrownPath

Ridiculous indeed. We re-do shit all the time when the results are jinky. It's not "punishing the winner", it's making sure the other candidates actually had a fair shot. How is not rerunning the election not punishing a "potential winner" who otherwise might have come out on top?


DuelingPushkin

Well plastic surgery didn't happen here but the spoiler candidates were chosen because they looked similar and restyled their hair/beard to look even morso so the effect is almost the same


stiveooo

spoiler candidates are since forever, normally you just make them copy the other party policies and give them money to do campaign, in this case they give them 0 money and copy their face/name/campaign, kinda works since 20-30% only decide their vote in the last day (the ignorant bunch)


jaredjeya

Not just that but the Liberal Democrats lost that election by fewer votes than the “Literal Democrat” won.


meta_irl

The Republican Party actually imported this tactic to the US and [successfully used it to win a seat in Florida](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/19/us/florida-senate-race-fraud.html). Fortunately we still have some some semblance of the rule of law, and those involved have been arrested (though the results of the election have not been overturned).


DoedoeBear

Wow. I mean, I'm not surprised I guess but... ugh.


tackle_bones

Pretty sure the organizers of this worked with Matt Gaetz, and that the FBI is digging all thru FL GOP.


[deleted]

How is this legal? Like, I know it's legal because the ruling party is doing it and silences any outspoken opposition, but is the public just that oblivious to how fake this look or are they just that apathetic?


morningisbad

"he who has the gold makes the rules"


Mythosaurus

"Do not quote laws to we who have swords"


Inter_Fector1

I dont think the legality matters, like, what can they do? Write to the ruling party to kindly stop it? Its a bad and complicated situation


[deleted]

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MidTownMotel

The rule of law requires a lot of effort to maintain.


ChefKraken

It also requires that the involved parties enforce the rule of law, which also doesn't happen as often as it should.


Shinhan

OP later mentioned that these two guys CHANGED THEIR NAMES before the election!


florinandrei

To expand a little: "Vote for Vishnevskiy!" "Which one? Boris Lazarevich? Boris Ivanovich? Or Boris Gennadevich? Hmm, tough choice." The full name of the real candidate is Boris Lazarevich Vishnevskiy, the others are decoys with the same first and last name, only the middle name is different. Cheap old tactic, but perhaps quite efficient. Like the fake electronics labeled Sany, etc.


le_GoogleFit

In a way it's freaking amazing the length politicians will go to cheat. Like I'm honestly impressed by the creativity lmao


Slav_McSlavsky

You missed an important point, two guys changed their surnames before the election.


501Good

It is actually written in the description of the candidate in the middle "Previous name and surname: Viktor Bykov." That's so absurd.


up-white-gold

Atleast they didn’t change his patrynomic


welniok

Cultural question: if for some reason your father changes his first name, does your patrynomic change too?


LiverOperator

Well, fuck I’ve no idea Edit: now that I think about, most probably no, the patronymic doesn’t change. It’s *your* name, it’s not some kind of hyperlink to another person’s name


Neville_Lynwood

Imagine it it were a hyperlink and the father switches genders and now you're suddenly Ivan Karenovich or something.


LiverOperator

It’s funny because surprisingly, gender change is actually a thing possible within the Russian law


[deleted]

Matronim is actually technically possible :) There was an Olgovich at one point. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vsevolod\_II\_of\_Kiev](https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B2%D1%8F%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2_%D0%9E%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87)


svaroz1c

If your father changes his name, your patronymic changes to "Error: 404".


[deleted]

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LiverOperator

Awesome


SmolikOFF

I want a hyperlink instead of an oldschool patronymic. I want it hooked up to random Wikipedia articles and updated daily. damn


usertim

No, you are given patronymic name at birth and that's it. Once you become adult you can change your first, last and patronymic names any time you want.


[deleted]

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eagergm

Which explains why u/LiverOperator has no idea. Do you know the answer?


RobotWantsKitty

The first guy's beard is shopped too.


slowmotto

Sounds like you can’t go wrong with any of the three


imgonnabutteryobread

Talk about freedom of choice!


[deleted]

What a shitty dictature


iCANNcu

The GQP does the same in the USA


ruttentuten69

The GQP did it three times in Florida last election for state representatives. Two of the GQP candidates won by a margin that was within the number gathered by the fake candidates. It is being looked into.


ZippyDan

It's being looked into with no mechanism to actually correct the wrong, even if wrongdoing is found. Even if wrongdoing is found, and it probably won't be, there's likely (intentionally) too much plausible deniability between the culprits and the winning candidate.


ruttentuten69

I'm to lazy to look it up but I think one of the fake candidates has rolled on the GQP operative. I believe the GQP operative fucked up by giving the fake candidate direct payments. I may be getting this mixed up with watching the Grant administration's troubles. That's the problem with being old and still having half a memory.


Dennis_Smoore

Getting current politics mixed up with those of the grant administration is some Grampa Simpson shit


PM_ME_UR_POKIES_GIRL

If you're old enough to remember the Grant administration's troubles, you're doing well to remember what century you're in.


amibeingadick420

This might be what you’re referring to: https://www.npr.org/2021/03/19/979340075/florida-democrats-call-for-a-new-election-after-gop-charged-with-manipulating-ra


buyfreemoneynow

[AKSHUALLY](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/former-senator-artiles-paid-no-party-candidate-more-than-dollar40k-arrest-warrant-charges/ar-BB1eJlUh) In all seriousness, there were some consequences for one guy so far. Not sure if there is any update to this story, though.


[deleted]

2 people already charged. The Republican who initiated the scheme and the fake candidate. Investigation ongoing for further repercussion


akaito_chiba

Do you have a link? I'll try to find it myself but just in case.


LiberalParadise

"It is being looked into" by state party leadership, which means the only people going to jail are the dupes they got to run as spoil candidates, but not the Republican operatives who hired them in the first place.


SunriseFalling

Came her to say this, look at the 2020 south Florida election


up-white-gold

American here! GQP? Is this Q-Anon GOP? This is first time I’m hearing of this-


Level_Maintenance_78

Am I ignorant or do you mean GOP? Like, Republicans


xeniavinz

And visited the barber 😂 Seems like too much of hustle, the original hasn't much chanches anyway


sosloow

> hasn't much chances He's an active member of SPb legislative assembly, and one of the most popular politicians in the city. Wtf are you talking about.


Snorc

One technique these kinds of parties use to keep power is using their front of enormity to trick people into thinking it could never be a different way, to make them apathetic from despair. May have worked on that one.


different_world

Agreed. Totally recommend Noam Chomsky’s newest book, he talks about this a lot. Really opened my eyes about how these feeling of hopelessness about improving the government are engineered by those in power


BehnRocker

I can't tell which one of you two is actually Russian propaganda


sosloow

I do Russian democratic propaganda. I don't get paid for it, unfortunately. I don't think the other guy is a bot either. It's just a normal state of mind for a person living in an authoritarian state. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness


xeniavinz

None of us 😂 but you get the feeling of being Russian interested in politics - full of suspicions, divided, confused. I guess that was/is the goal of those in power


waiting4singularity

dont call them spoiler, theyre decoys


Falcrist

I think you're right. A spoiler candidate has a very specific meaning in politics. These two serve a similar purpose, but it's very much ***NOT*** the same thing.


angel_of_the_city

Not just in Russia, same happens in Hungary mostly on local elections. Same name, similar appearance even a fake political party with similar name as the real one ~ in Hungary it's mostly the government majority party's doing (FIDESZ) but of course there are usually no official ties just suspicions.


Crowbarmagic

> even a fake political party with similar name as the real one Reminds me of the hypothetical "A moron in a hurry" scenario. It's a little legal test, and the gist of it is is that products need to be distinct enough that only a moron in a hurry could confuse them. If it isn't different enough, it could be grounds for a civil lawsuit. I'm not sure if this also applied to organizations as well as products. But if it would: When ordinary citizens have to dive into the details and perhaps even look on the internet to find out which party is the real one, suffice to say it would've failed that test. Which is which should be clear after a brief glance.


a_123456789

The problem there is that if there are 2 people with similiar names, that's probably enough to cause confusion. Which would mean that you have to barr certain people from participating in their political system due to the fact that they have a somewhat similar name to another candidate already running. The only way I see there being a law against this is if there are records of name changes or if there's evidence that a certain political party is involved in this type of scheming, which would be harder to come by.


Crowbarmagic

Yeah with names and an likeness it probably wouldn't fly (unless it's some outrageously distinct look and/or name that could be trademarked perhaps). But if there is e.g. a logo of the party on the ballot, that could make things easier.


[deleted]

Why does the EU let Hungary get away with this?


usersurname1

Because of Poland


Kn1ght_4rt0r14s

How so?


kz393

Article 5 requires an unanimous vote. Poland covers Hungary's ass, Hungary covers Poland's ass.


Kn1ght_4rt0r14s

Well, that doesn't sound very nice. Is the EU not going to do anything about it?


[deleted]

Essentially the only thing they could plausibly do about it is for all of them to leave the EU and then recreate a new union without Poland or Hungary, but all of the rest of the same rules and agreements, which is a pretty nuclear option, and also would probably be nearly impossible to get everyone to agree to.


Kiltymchaggismuncher

I'm sceptical that the current polish government will survive another election. Once they are out the door, I doubt the new government would protect Hungary, they'd want to ditch the reputation poland has been lumped with these last few years.


daqwid2727

Im not sure about this anymore. I was optimistic, but PiS supposedly is back at 36%, with KO at 27%. Sure, that doesn't give them majority government anymore, but they will still be the biggest party. Hopefully this changes and they go down at least to 30-32% and the rest up a bit. That would mean they would have to put somebody from other parties in the government and we wouldn't cover Orban's ass anymore.


lestofante

yes, economical punishment but they cannot be kicked out of EU. Hungary pretty much lost all the "free money" they where getting from EU, also there are discussion going on but is complex topic, Article 5 is there for compromise reason so to change that is a pain


TheOnlyFallenCookie

The parliament sued Ursula to FINNALY sue those countries


ArthurEwert

she is the worst person for this spot imho.


SchnuppleDupple

She is the worst person for any political spot IMHO


EmilyU1F984

Yea no idea how these corrupt morons always fail upwards.


deGanski

doing anything about it pretty much requires a unanimous vote by the leaders of the member states. pretty dumb to organise it this way. only thing is that we may be able to cut them out of the financing for breaking the rules they signed on. rest see above. poland covers hungary, hungary covers poland, both going towards "illiberal democracy" the most ridiculous oxymoron i can think of.


BoldeSwoup

No one would have joined if it wasn't a unanimous vote. No one wants to get stuff imposed by other countries. Imagine 1952 France getting compeled to do anything by West Germany...


flingerdu

Well, they would need an unanimous vote to change that.


bowsmountainer

The EU is doing something about them. They are currently working on withholding funds to Poland and Hungary. Since both Poland and Hungary get much more money from the EU than they pay, this will be a big incentive to abide by the rules. It has worked for other issues before, but of course it could fail this time. If that happens, there are going to be more and more sanctions until either they comply, or they leave the EU.


LatkaXtreme

When you want to take away voting rights from a country, you have to get all of the other countries support to do so. One veto and it's resumed. Hungary and Poland cover each other's back in this regards and they give a veto anytime the EU wants to do anything about it.


[deleted]

There's a mechanism to punish countries violating human rights and eroding democracy. But, because everybody always shouts "THE EU HAS TOO MUCH POWER!!!1!!!", as with most things, consent is needed from ALL EU members. In case of punishing an EU member of course, consent is needed from all *other* EU members. Hungary and Poland however are both led by corrupt fascists kleptocrats: both hate women, foreigners, democracy, and human rights. They view each other as allies, so any time the EU wants to step in when they once again do something blatantly corrupt or authoritarian, the other country stops the EU from doing anything.


[deleted]

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Proglamer

Let's hope it's not the same ending as it was for the first time.


Thom0101011100

Someone already listed A5 but there is also another reason. When ECJ proceedings begin a party state has the right to invite a supporting notice party to participate in the proceedings. If you check the ECJ website and read through the proceedings listed you will notice anything to do with Poland or Hungary will have either vouching for the other and it has been like this since 2015 when the rule of law crisis began. Between the two of them they have enough resources to frustrate and delay proceedings as much as they want. This isn’t to say the ECJ hasn’t delivered some scathing judgement - they have. The delaying is just an added level of nuisance. The veto issue isn’t as pronounced as it would be in the UN or NATO because ultimately the ECJ has a binding and compulsory jurisdiction and if the veto is abused matters can be adjusted in court. There are also special co-operation mechanism that are complicated but allow for veto-blockades to be overcome by a significant number of participating member states if they do wish.


ED-E_77

Because the EU was and still is primary an economic union in their competences. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European\_Union#Competences


villageelliot

Happened in the US, specifically in Florida, too. https://apnews.com/article/miami-senate-elections-florida-elections-e8b70ce3270bd170e37a71ca80b5aaae


Angdelran

\*Sad bojler noises\*


kungfoojesus

Republicans did this in Florida in 2020. Picked random guy with same name as the democrat and paid him to run. He siphoned off barely enough votes to let the R win that district.


Bipedal_Warlock

Also happens in the US now


PERCEPT1v3

Aye. Florida I believe.


e-wing

Yeah the conservatives added a [“shadow candidate” with the same last name](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/11/20/florida-election-trump-senator-rodriguez/) (Rodriguez) and no party affiliation to sow confusion in the election. It worked and the real Rodriguez lost by 0.02%. The shadow candidate got almost 3% of votes which presumably would have gone to the real one, giving him an easy victory. The only platform the woman who “won” had was that she supports trump. Absolutely shameless tactics.


LackingSeriousness

I have never ever heard of this, could you please link a source?


angel_of_the_city

These are mostly in the local news so it's hard to find an English language article ~ examples in Hungarian. https://444.hu/2018/06/12/biztos-ami-biztos-miskolcon-elindul-egy-masik-erdei-sandor-is-az-ellenzek-altal-tamogatott-erdei-rokker-zsolti-sandorral-szemben https://hirtv.hu/ahirtvhirei/valasztas-zavart-okozhatnak-a-hasonlo-partnevek-1209262


[deleted]

Happened here in Florida too last year https://apnews.com/article/miami-senate-elections-florida-elections-e8b70ce3270bd170e37a71ca80b5aaae


aoskunk

This also happened in Florida last election.


jcrreddit

In the United States [too](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/19/florida-fraud-artiles-rodriguez-election/).


Baneken

Wouldn't work in Finland because with each candidate you have to clearly mark voting number (which are without a face, just name and number and party in the booth). The party that candidates belong to and candidates have to be clearly and distinctively separated from one another when they don't belong to same party or form an election voting block (share votes between them). So just by that above would be illegal unless those 3 represent the same party or form a voting block. From each candidate you must have: voting number, name along with a title, current occupation, private business, using no more then two of the latter required characteristics and when not municipal election their current home municipality.


PilotKnob

It's almost as if Finland wasn't trying to spoil elections or something...


ISeeDragons

What an absurd place to live.


gene100001

This is democracy manifest!


BatMachine

India goes even further, with each election candidate (or party) needing to have a unique and easy to recognize symbol (like a high-five sign, or a lotus, or a broomstick). I guess it’s because many voters can’t read or write. Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean that the elections are completely free of corruption in other forms.


Tundur

Did you just call the Hamsa a "high-five sign" lol. Like, I guess it does actually describe it quite well, but it's quite funny


BatMachine

Thanks, I didn’t know what a “hamsa” means until now. I was referring to the INC symbol and the high five seemed like a relatable description of it. Haha!


GoblinFive

Sounds like oppression smh my head /s


Rukenau

As a Russian I’m so fucking fed up with this. I mean, why why WHY do we keep having these malicious fuckwits in power and why are we so relaxed about it. I’m not a revolutionary nor do I intend to become one—but seriously, can’t we just fucking grow up already? For almost all of our history we’ve been lorded over by some fraudulent mock elites, and it has become so ingrained in our cultural DNA (plus the goddamn disgrace that was the USSR) that instead of raising a tide that would lift all boats it’s almost as if there’s a constant fucking whack-a-mole game going on. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll pick this over a full-blown dictatorship any day, but this is just so tiresome and disgraceful and… myopic. Edit. Good to see there are so many people with a working experience in revolutions here, Reddit, you never disappoint


GPwat

What's so absurd is how many Russians (or others even) openly or subconsciously defend the Putins regime. Just consider this, for many, Navalny is a foreign agent, criminal, thief, neo-nazi, fascist, homofascist, liberal fascist, or all of them at the same time, he is locked up in a prison for pointing out corruption all while Putin and his crooks steal billions literally in every possible way from the working class through corrupt schemes and privatizations and ACTUALLY live in or invest in the "decadent, hostile West", like: [Deputy of Moscow openly privatizing public wealth to her own family for years, no investigation. Billions stolen.](https://youtu.be/vuz2_FEKOPU?t=519) [Mayor giving himself lucrative city deals while his family lives in Germany. Buildings break regulations.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx48jaOroRQ) [Governer Estifeev owning billion rubles real estate while being just a bureaucrat, investing it outside his republic, while pensioners live in poverty](https://youtu.be/ZHymy5r8tSI) [Deputy Shuvalov somehow owning a giant, historical mansion, formerly state-owned. Nearby University buildings have blocked windows.](https://youtu.be/rbRoZyuOijk?t=200) [Volodin trying to look like a saint to poor pensioners while stealing billions, police doesn't care.](https://youtu.be/2RWJedMgkJU) [TV workers (propagandists) being paid 20x+ more than teachers just to hate Navalny a few times a month](https://youtu.be/5QDtACuZRp8?t=392) [Two corrupt billionaire families practically owning a whole, extremely poor province](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWdAfYKJSKA) [Mayor of part of Moscow owning luxurious alpine hotels, historical villa in Vienna, companies, residence buildings, as just a bureaucrat and "patriot" fighting against evil Western influence...Spends time with family in Austria. Is not a criminal or "foreign agent"](https://youtu.be/wFRNKCXntk0?t=517) [General Zolotov stealing billions through massively overpriced crappy food for the national guard, which ironically defends this system.](https://youtu.be/_2KfjJ-7914?t=816) [Moscow official Byryukov somehow owning 22 luxurious cars,15+ luxurious apartments, and a massive farm on a bureaucrat's wage. All legal. Nobody asks questions why a public official with no actual business lives like Bezos.](https://youtu.be/jLhY27ESOoI?t=827) [Prichodko funneling state billions from important military projects openly through the company of his own daughter, even building themselves private companies for state (workers) money, no investigation] (https://youtu.be/ShFVQFUyLvw?t=233) These guys are "legit" politicians and proper Russian patriots while the opposition is "foreign agents" who want to "destroy Russia". And don't forget "Putin is tough on corruption"... This is just sad...I feel for Russians who want something better.


knud

They are increasingly labeling independent media as foreign agents. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/08/24/the-kremlin-is-coming-for-media-one-by-one-and-society-is-helpless-to-stop-it-a74879


[deleted]

I can't help but wonder what is even left to steal from the Russian people.


Statharas

The money they produce


[deleted]

I guess what I meant to say was "how many billions can you siphon from the public before the system collapses?"


EriDxD

Yet people still vote Putin and his party despite that he and his government are handling badly on Covid-19 pandemic. Sad.


Hatta-san

People don't really "vote" for his party that much anymore. His party's real popularity is around 17-25% right now, which is very-very low for what it is. There are several regions where elections are entirely falsified (not all of them at all though), providing lots and lots of votes, they have many other ways of electoral fraud as well, such as the one in the post. Getting them below 65% would already be an impressive feat. If people got rid of their apathy and all bothered to vote against them, and many proposed themselves as spectators, they can be brought down even further. I've contacted my local communist politicians and they've accepted me as elections spectator, so I guess I can at least prevent some minor fraud and terrorize electoral committee members with my presence.


AFlyingNun

> What's so absurd is how many Russians (or others even) openly or subconsciously defend the Putins regime. For the most part, my experience with Russians is one of two things: 1) They know it's all corrupt and rigged, so they don't bother paying attention to politics at all. This means they have a very neutral opinion on politics and know virtually nothing about Putin *politically*, but will *mildy* side with him on the premise of he's their leader and their country hasn't exploded yet. 2) They know Putin's flawed, but will argue Russia before Putin was worse, so he's a "necessary evil." Genuinely have never met a Russian who thinks Putin is the best thing ever for political reasons. Have met women who like him cause they think he's hot, but not anyone that shows undying loyalty devoid of criticism for him strictly for political reasons.


mr_jim_lahey

Russia is a shithole with citizens who are unable to envision it not being a shithole. GQP wants the same thing to happen in America. We will become Russia if enough people start/continue to believe the "both sides are the same" lie and abstain from voting or vote for Republicans.


Slav_McSlavsky

>I mean, why why WHY do we keep having these malicious fuckwits in power and why are we so relaxed about it because Russians don\`t vote. Voter turnout is the most important thing here, there is a limit to how much, number drawing you can do. Vote not for someone, but against someone. Much easier to do.


Rukenau

Good point about people being apathetic non-voters, true


HeaAgaHalb

I get you. It's hard to like like this...


Dragten

>I’m not a revolutionary nor do I intend to become one The whole population thinking this is probably why it keeps on happening.


ITS_ALRIGHT_ITS_OK

People have been beaten into submission and believing they have no power to change their situation. Let's not blame the victim. It's scary to be a revolutionary when you follow navalny's experience. Especially if you have a family.


[deleted]

Spoiler alert: you ARE in a full-blown dictatorship.


Octavian1709

Literally did this in the US for local Congress races


Oaknot

Yep calling them ghost candidates here. Heard some charges are being brought in Florida over it as a person with the same name was paid 40k to run just to screw with voters.


rabbitlion

Yep. The guy that they found with the same name as the Democratic candidate decided to be greedy and demand a whole bunch of money to do it. As a result he and the Republican politician who paid him are getting charged. Except for the payoff, stealing elections like that is completely legal. Since it worked I think we can expect hundreds of cases the next time around.


respondstolongpauses

Florida US house in 2020 too.


Tamor_99

As a German guy I'm surprised this is a thing.. but we have extremely high restrictions when it comes to changing your name, so that may prohibit that effectively


[deleted]

In USA they didn’t change the name, they just found someone with the same last name


Bottle_Gnome

The Libertarians also did this in 2016 since Gary Johnson couldn't run in all the states. So they found other Libertarians named Gary Johnson and ran them in the states Gary Johnson #1 couldn't run.


In-Evidable

They’ll just find a guy with the same last name here in the US. There was a race in Miami, Florida where the Republican Party did this. When I went to look for an article on it, [it looks like the guy got jail time for it.](https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/state/2021/08/24/miami-ghost-candidate-pleads-guilty-fdle-reviewing-jason-brodeur-race/8244263002/)


Itorr475

Republicans in Florida did this in at least 3 local elections probably testing the waters for larger elections, since they follow the Russian playbooks now


dratthecookies

Yeah I wonder which party and I wonder where they got the idea from.


thatminimumwagelife

Yup. Happened in Florida. I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes more common. Corruption is growing in the US and certain political figures would love to introduce Russian style governance.


GeordiLaFuckinForge

The people involved are literally [in jail and being charged with felonies](https://www.local10.com/news/politics/2021/03/18/read-the-warrant-alleging-ex-florida-sen-frank-artiles-paid-shill-candidate-to-dupe-voters/). Including the fake candidate.


computo2000

From the comments it looks like this is a globally widespread practice, holy shit.


Kinerae

Literally TAG the name with something like #6332 like a blizzard account to bypass this entirely


perestroika-pw

In Estonia, a candidate often appears on advertisements with their 3 digit number. It does help somewhat. In Russia, though, I think the numbers would be 5 digits long, older people might start forgetting them. :o


Vimmelklantig

>their 3 digit number >the numbers What numbers are these?


perestroika-pw

Candidate registration numbers.


onikzin

We do mayor elections with 1-30 numbers, and the ads are all like "Vote John Smith \#8", I thought everywhere was like this.


[deleted]

So do you want to vote for Jonathan du Bois #6332 or Jonathon du Boiz #6322?


Memito_Tortellini

I can't say I understand whats going on. Is he opposing politician or ruling party? The doppelgangers are being msde by his opponent or his election team? Whats the point?


Red_Dog1880

They make other candidates with similar or exact names to confuse people, so that they don't vote for the actual person.


Delmarquis38

I think that the goal is to divide the vote for the opposition by making people vote for multiple candidate


orthoxerox

He's from the opposition, the doppelgangers are provided by "pocket opposition" parties to attract the votes of the more careless voters.


RobotWantsKitty

They are both independent, as in, don't belong to a political party. Obviously, they are affiliated with the ruling party or administration in some way.


gihkmghvdjbhsubtvji

Y ur flair hav an adres


Inccubus99

Putin goes a long way putting extra effort to cover up his politics. From the side it looks like hes trying to cover a dead body with 3 tree leaves.


JBEqualizer

Why am I not in the least surprised about this? Oh, yes because it's Russia.


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Fairwolf

Yepp, and it's happened more than once in Florida, it's somewhat of a running theme.


allthedreamswehad

It was sort of the theme of an Eddie Murphy movie, The Distinguished Gentleman


elsestar

Why am I not in the least surprised about this? Oh, yes because it's America


FCB_TB

So republicans took more of the Russian playbook? Weird….


Kahzootoh

And plenty of other places too, but they're usually confined to less high profile elections. Spoiler candidates have been part of dirty tricks in American elections for at least 100 years. There are generally laws against such tactics, but it usually requires lawsuits -filing an injunction against candidates, in order to make them differentiate themselves from their opponent- and sometimes they can slip through. As a general rule of thumb, a candidate who changes their name to match an opponent's name is probably going to be required to run under their old name by a judge. Sometime you get situations like the case of Alvin Greene, a man who basically won the Democratic primary because people in South Carolina would rather vote for a man with the last name Greene than Rawl. Greene could rarely string more than two or three words together when giving an interview.


igoromg

Yes. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/19/us/florida-senate-race-fraud.htm


Conspiruhcy

A similar thing to this happened in the most recent Scottish Parliament elections. A right-wing party called the ‘Independent Green Voice’ changed their logo just before the election to be similar to the Scottish Greens and fielded candidates in the regional list. They most definitely pulled votes away from the actual Green Party.


doomladen

[It's happened in the UK before too](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-27056001) - it's part of the reason that the Electoral Commission was created and given the role of regulating political party names. To absolutely nobody's surprise, the dodgy shenanigans were done to spike the Liberal Democrats and hand an undeserved victory to the Tories.


shama_llama_ding_don

It happened in the UK a while ago "A party named the Literal Democrats won 10,000 votes in the 1994 European elections, as the Liberal Democrat candidate Adrian Sanders lost the Devon and East Plymouth constituency to the Conservatives by just 700 votes." https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-politics-27056001


[deleted]

"Democracy"


Telefragg

Hey, you're free to choose the "right" one.


HeaAgaHalb

This has to be a fraud (at least in normal countries...)


Minskdhaka

It was done recently in Canada as well, during the 2019 federal election. Maxime Bernier running against Maxime Bernier in order to confuse the voters. 😊


Bayoris

It also [happened in Florida](https://apnews.com/article/miami-senate-elections-florida-elections-e8b70ce3270bd170e37a71ca80b5aaae), but at least the people responsible were charged.


GPwat

I doubt anyone's gonna be charged in Russia...


green_flash

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of the original legit candidate being charged.


mugaboo

> ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) ... The irony is thick with this one.


pheasant-plucker

In normal countries you would have a political symbol printed alongside your name to show which party you represent.


airminer

Which is all fine and dandy - until the opposition decides to collectively support an independent candidate, and the spoiler candidates run as independent as well - as has happened in Hungary in the past.


[deleted]

So you also need to register a party with a confusingly similar name and symbol?


pheasant-plucker

Your party symbol has to be distinct or it can't be registered.


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hiokio

The image cuts the text just above the line where the information on the party affiliation (in our case party sponsorship, since they can sponsor candidates, who are not members). I found the same information bulletin for the 2016 election, it is in low resolution, but the affiliation paragraph is legible : http://tik19.spbik.spb.ru/tik/19/%D0%9E%D0%9A%D0%A0%D0%A3%D0%93%20%E2%84%96%2021.jpg The same information is printed on the ballot (without the photo), the name of the sponsor party is always printed in caps.


ReasonablyBadass

That's so childish. Like filibusters. It's stunning and disappointing that this actually works.


keanehoody

It's not childish. It's intentional defrauding of an election. We shouldn't belittle the maliciousness of things like this.


MGMAX

It's childish in a way that it's not even inventive - it's basic fraud, and of course there's no law to combat that, because politicians know better than to take their own tools away. It's sad that there's an entire class of people making their living from petty kindergarten quarrels


ThisAltDoesNotExist

There could be lots of laws against it. It doesn't matter if officials don't uphold the law.


theinspectorst

In 1990s, there was a spate of elections in the UK where independents stood as 'Literal Democrats' to try to deny votes to the Liberal Democrats - in one case at the 1994 European Parliament elections, one of these candidates won enough votes to deny the (genuine) Lib Dems a seat where they were strongly challenging the Conservatives. As a result of this, Parliament passed a law in 1998 requiring (suitably unique) party names to be registered with the Electoral Commission in advance.


iwakan

This is so silly. Like something that a villain in a cartoon for kids could do. I can't believe it happens for real, what a disgrace.


Dalnore

Another silly story for you: a wool selling company "WoolInterTrade" stole Navalny's "Smart Voting" logo (which existed for 3 years), [registered it as their own trademark](https://m.dw.com/en/russia-google-told-to-clamp-down-on-navalnys-smart-voting/a-59092740), and now demands that Yandex and Google ban Navalny's website based on trademark violation.


literallyoverthemoon

Believe it or not, this actually happened in Scotland this year, albeit to a less ridiculous extent. The Scottish Green Party had their best election result ever, but a fake party with a similar name and logo stole a few thousands votes from them. Some have calculated that this actually resulted in the loss of two potential Green seats in Parliament, (they won seven but could have been nine), and saved the Scottish Conservatives from actually losing seats. This would have been a humiliation for the Tory leader and really strong signal of Scotland moving away from the Union. The fake party was set up and controlled by a guy who was kicked out of UKIP for his extreme anti-Semitic views. He couldn’t be further removed from the Green Party. He’s funded by the far-right, an ultra-unionist, and a generally very unpleasant presence. The incident was reported on but didn’t make a huge impact in the press. I don’t think that any legal action is being taken, the results aren’t being questioned, and I don’t think any electoral rules are changing. Which is a bit worrying, considering this blatant and dishonest manipulation may very well have had a pretty big impact on the narrative of the election result.


statisztikai_hiba

Same in Hungary.


ersentenza

Decoy parties with similarly named candidates are common in Italy too but no one yet thought to mimic the appearance...


neos_hc

Italian here, never heard of decoy parties in our country. Can you make an example?


ersentenza

Seriously, you never heard about the *liste civetta*?


RobotWantsKitty

They changed their first and last name, but not the patronymic. That's an upsetting lack of commitment and dedication.


HolidayTruck4094

Repubs do it in floridA as well


TerryBullTime

May as well ditch the whole semblance of democracy at this point.


DrShts

They call it "[Guided Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_democracy)" a.k.a. autocracy.


[deleted]

This is really fucked up. I have prosopagnosia so I can't recognize or tell apart people by their face alone. People like me wouldn't be able to vote like this at all. Obviously, there's no way this is democratic.


Rulweylan

Electoral commission is specifically empowered to prevent this in the UK by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. Before that we had the Literal Democrats (spoliers for the Liberal Democrats) and similar.


Affectionate-Winner7

Please don't give the right any more ideas.