Ivan Shukshin

An election analyst, Shukshin, publicly claimed that the 2024 presidential elections saw record levels of ballot-stuffing in favour of Vladimir Putin. According to him, throughout 2024 he received several phone calls from police officers in Gelendzhik regarding an unspecified publication on the website of the Golos movement. In November 2024, it emerged that he had been placed on a wanted list in connection with an undisclosed criminal case.

Later it became clear that, in April 2024, the Investigative Committee had in fact opened a libel case against him over two articles he had published on the Golos website in 2023. One of the articles described pressure exerted on election observers at a polling station in Gelendzhik, while the other outlined methods of falsifying election results.

Shukshin himself links the criminal proceedings to his article alleging that 22 million votes were fraudulently added during the 2024 presidential election. He pointed out that the Investigative Committee began its inquiry on 22 March 2024—just four days after that article was published—and that the investigation was launched following an appeal by Russia’s First Deputy Prosecutor-General.