The resource, compiled for voters who intend to take part in the election, catalogues candidates' public statements and actions concerning the war. TV Rain reported that the site carries dossiers on candidates across Russia assessed against three criteria: their attitude to the war, the intensity of their campaign activity, and their chances of winning.
The statement announcing the project was signed by 13 people, among them Dmitry Bykov, Dmitry Gudkov, Maxim Reznik, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Sergei Aleksashenko, Marat Gelman, Boris Zimin, Tatyana Lazareva, Elena Lukyanova, Yuri Pivovarov, Vadim Prokhorov, Mikhail Kokorich and Anastasia Shevchenko.
To make the assessments, the authors analysed candidates' statements on Telegram and VK, as well as their actions and publications about their campaigns. A separate section is devoted to parties, setting out a "radicalism index" and a "share of war in publications"; according to the project, the calculations were based on 10,500 posts in parties' official Telegram channels between January 1 and September 7.
In the text published by the Anti-War Committee, it says that "what is happening in Russia in September cannot be called elections in the full sense of the word": the anti-war Yabloko party was barred from the ballot, millions of Russians who have left the country are effectively excluded from the political process, and many who have spoken out against the war are in prison or deprived of the ability to take part in political life.
The authors of the statement welcomed citizens' desire "to use even the limited opportunities for political action that remain today", and said they did not consider it right to dictate tactics to people: whether to take part or not, whom to vote for, whether to spoil a ballot, or whether to come to polling stations at noon on September 20.
The statement does not say that voting for these candidates is categorically forbidden. But it notes that the vote of a person who opposes the war should not, through ignorance, go to someone who supports that war.
Russian opposition forces operating in exile are proposing different courses of action. Supporters of the Anti-Corruption Foundation have urged voters to cast their party-list ballots for any party except United Russia, and in single-mandate districts to follow the recommendations of the so-called Smart Voting, which are due to appear closer to election day. Maxim Katz has also called for voting against United Russia and previously created a website analysing the positions of parties and candidates on the war.
Ilya Yashin and his supporters are calling for a vote against United Russia and for voters to come to polling stations at exactly noon on the main election day, September 20; at the previous election an action in that format was called "Noon Against Putin". Representatives of the Free Russia Forum have called for a boycott of the election, pointing out that it is also being held in Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine. The Yabloko party itself has urged voters to invalidate their ballots.
The main voting will take place on September 18-20. Early voting is already under way in Russian regions bordering Ukraine and in the occupied territories of Ukraine. The Belgorod publication Pepel has already reported preparations for the first ballot-stuffing in the Belgorod region.