According to the newspaper “Vedomosti”, the Agency Sigma Expert examined the number of participants in anti-corruption rallies in different cities of Russia and found a correlation with turnout in the elections to the state Duma in September 2016. The lower was the turnout, the greater the percentage of the total number of residents came to protest rallies.
Leaders in this respect were Smolensk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Chita, Vladivostok, Perm, where in the parliamentary elections the turnout did not exceed 42%, and in most cases does not hold up to 40%.
The main exception was in Makhachkala, where to vote for members of the lower house came 88% of voters, and the percentage of the protesters she was in the first place. However, the elections expert Andrei Buzin explained by the fact that in the capital of Dagestan, have been proven instances of over appearance 10 times.
The use of Sigma Expert of big data technology have enabled and find out the methods of mobilization of protesters. If during the so-called belolentochnye protests of 2011-2012, the main platform was Facebook, now the main tool was the “Vkontakte”. Moreover, in some cases, applications were submitted without the participation of the headquarters of Alexei Navalny, in Moscow, his supporters have set up a support group “Vkontakte” only after it became clear that an unusual amount of people gathered in the social network in St. Petersburg, said the press Secretary of the opposition Kira Armys policy.
Anti-corruption rally on March 26 all over the country gathered according to different estimates tens of thousands of people. In most cases, rallies and marches were not sanctioned by the authorities, which led to mass arrests. Thus, in Moscow in the Department were sent to more than 930 people, including almost the entire leadership of the Fund of struggle against corruption.
President Vladimir Putin on the eve called misuse of the fight against corruption for political purposes. According to him, it is “a tool of the Arab spring” and “was the reason for the coup in Ukraine.”
One of the topics of anti-corruption actions was the requirement for the authorities to respond to the film the investigation FBK “you do not Dimon”, which referred to real estate and land plots that are owned by funds associated, as indicated by BCF, with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
