Sergey Lavrov denounces alleged „direct interference by the West” ahead of Russia’s legislative elections

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West on Wednesday of attempting to interfere in Russia’s legislative elections, which begin on Friday. The statements were made at an international youth festival held in Yekaterinburg, two days before the vote.

Lavrov claimed that Western countries were trying to “stir up and destabilize” the situation in Russia and influence the expression of voters’ will. He said that the “interference” was visible both inside the country and abroad, where Russia is due to open more than 300 polling stations.

That same day, the CikLeak hacker group announced that it had compromised the servers of the Central Election Commission and of several contractors involved in the remote electronic voting system. The hackers claimed that they had distributed the materials obtained to journalists and accused the authorities of using opaque infrastructure.

The United Russia party, the pro-Kremlin political force, is trying to retain its parliamentary majority amid declining popularity in the polls. The Yabloko party, the communist opposition, and dissidents living in exile have questioned the integrity of electronic voting and urged voters to vote on Sunday using paper ballots.