The Federation Council Exchanged Experience on Countering External Elections Influence

On October 9, the Federation Council hosted a meeting of its Commission on Protecting State Sovereignty and Preventing Interference in the Domestic Affairs of the Russian Federation and International Affairs Committee.

Representatives of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly took part in the meeting and shared their experience in countering outside influence on elections.

Igor Borisov, a member of Russian CEC who earlier presented to the CSTO PA Recommendations on Improving the Legislation in the Area of Protection of Electoral Processes and Sovereignty in the CSTO Member States, noted the stable nature of the Russian electoral system despite Western attempts to interfere in Russia’s electoral processes.

“To our electoral system’s credit, we have not denounced a single commitment related to the presence of foreigners as international observers at our elections, which once again confirms the sustainable nature of our system,” Igor Borisov stressed.

Olga Kovitidi, a senator from Crimea, raised the issue of mental warfare conducted by the West.

“Today, a mental warfare is waged against the Russian Federation, and it should not be underestimated. We, the Crimeans, experience this mind manipulation first-hand. We need a whole set of measures which would include the state information agenda and would be systematically implemented in regions and municipalities. We must counter-balance this mental war already today,” said Olga Kovitidi.

Sergei Pospelov, Executive Secretary of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, shared the Assembly’s legislative experience in countering election interference.

“The fight against malicious interference of foreign actors in political and information processes of the CSTO Member States is one of Parliamentary Assembly’s constant priorities. The joint defence of electoral processes is considered a crucial task, carried out by parliamentary delegations in all available domains: legal, information and directly ‘on the ground’ during elections and referendums,” Sergei Pospelov said.

As you may recall, the term “electoral security,” which was proposed in the CSTO PA model legislation, became one of the elements of the draft Concept of the National Security Strategy of the Republic of Belarus.