Chubarov: Aksyonov tried to bribe Putin's representatives to inflate the voter turnout for the Russian elections in Crimea
The Kremlin-controlled head of the Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov and other representatives of the local authorities tried to bribe officials of the Russian presidential administration to inflate the turnout for the Russian elections in the Crimea held on March 18, 2018, the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, People's Deputy of Ukraine Refat Chubarov wrote on Facebook, referring to the data of the Russian Federal Security Service.
"Representatives of the Crimean authorities, particularly Aksyonov tried to influence the Moscow emissaries through bribes in order to inflate the turnout by 10% to 15%, but they rejected the bribe. This caused concern among the Crimean authorities since failure to fulfill the Kremlin's plan to turn the election results into a confirmation of the "referendum" of 2014 could lead to conclusions that the Crimean leaders were unable to use their existing administrative resource," Chubarov said, quoting FSB data.
Earlier, Chubarov said that at the elections held on March 18, 2018 in the Crimea, representatives of the administration of Russian President Vladimir Putin were onsite to observe the Russian presidential elections. "The so-called white protocol was compiled with real data on voting results: it contains turnout rates at the level of 42%, of which 8% are invalid and spoiled ballots," Chubarov said.
On March 19, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the results of the vote that Russia held in the annexed Crimea were "void" and "did not have legal consequences." The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted on March 22 for a resolution on the non-recognition of presidential elections in Russia held on the territory of the Crimea.