Russians abroad have begun to be blocked from accessing online voting in the State Duma elections
Kyiv • UNN
Russian citizens abroad are unable to authenticate in online voting systems. Voting for the State Duma is scheduled to begin on September 18.
Russians staying abroad are facing blocked access to remote electronic voting systems ahead of the State Duma elections. This is reported by The Moscow Times, citing a study by the Teplitsa of Social Technologies project and The Bell, UNN writes.
Details
This concerns the so-called "reverse blocking," when the election services themselves formally remain available, but authorization from foreign networks does not work or is significantly impeded.
During testing, the main mos.ru page opened from abroad, but it was impossible to log in via login.mos.ru from various European countries. Some users were able to authorize only through a paid VPN.
Problems also arise with the federal voting system
A similar situation was recorded with the remote electronic voting portal vybory.gov.ru. The website itself opened, but from a server in Germany, "Gosuslugi" and the Unified System of Identification and Authentication, necessary for authorization, did not work.
The researchers note that it is currently difficult to assess the scale of the blocking, since the services still worked through some other foreign connections.
At the same time, the websites of the Central Election Commission and regional election commissions, including those established by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine, did not open from abroad at all during the checks. It is currently impossible to verify the direct receipt of an electronic ballot, as voting is due to begin on September 18.