Independent vote monitor says Russian elections are 'most secret' ever
The head of an independent vote-monitoring group that Russia has labelled a "foreign agent" says the presidential election that began on Friday and is widely expected to re-elect Vladimir Putin is the least transparent the country has seen. Stanislav Andreichuk, co-chairman of Golos (Voice), said the use of electronic voting for the first time in a presidential election, and the fact that voting is spread over three days, both serve to make the process more opaque. "These are the most closed, most secret elections in Russian history," Andreichuk told Reuters in a telephone interview, referring to the 33 years since the break-up of the Soviet Union.
