Regional Elections and Electoral Malpractice in Russia: The Manipulation of Electoral Rules, Voters, and Votes

This study examines the democratic integrity of nine rounds of Russian regional assembly elections which were held over the period October 2008-September 2013. It provides a detailed examination of Birch’s three key aspects of electoral malpractice: the manipulation of rules, the manipulation of voters, and the manipulation of votes. The study demonstrates that elections in Russia have been far from “free and fair” and that the manipulation and falsification of elections have been so great that it is no longer valid to define Russia as some type of qualified democracy. Following Schedler, the study concludes that it is more accurate to classify Russia as an “electoral authoritarian regime.”