Journalism or snitching? Reported to authorities by interviewer
Текст на русском
On Saturday, March 16, around 4:30 p.m., Damir Khisyametdinov, who was appointed by the Communist Party to monitor the presidential elections at the polling station No. 510 in Balakovo, an industrial town in southwestern Russia, had already said goodbye to a local journalist Inna Chumichkina when she asked for his thoughts on the video message from Alexander Anidalov, a Saratov local deputy from the Communist Party.
Speaking about voter fraud the day before the presidential election, Anidalov said, «We are not urging you [to throw yourselves] under tanks or to the barricades, at least not yet». The phrase caught Chumichkina’s attention, and she even dedicated an article to it.
«I asked [Khisyametdinov], could it really get to the point that the Communists would do this, send people under tanks?», the journalist quotes her question on her own website ProBalakovo (an OVD–Info correspondent managed to reach Chumichkina by phone, but she promptly hung up upon hearing Damir’s name). According to Chumichkina, Khisyametdinov «grinned and said that this [throwing people under tanks] was possible, because „Putin throws people under tanks for 250 thousand rubles (~2,700 US$) a month“».
«I thought she was one of us, an oppositioist. For some reason, it appeared that way to me. I thought she was trying to bring order to the election process. It seemed so because the chairman of the commission was reporting to her as if he spoke to the president. And I just started talking to her like to any ordinary person. And then she said, „Are you discrediting the special military operation?“ Well, I kind of got it right away and said I wouldn’t talk to her anymore».
The journalist called the police officers that were on duty at the station, «turned on the video recording and asked him [Damir] to repeat his statements and voice his position on the special military operation». Damir refused, citing Article 51 of the Constitution (stipulating that nobody is obliged to testify against themselves).
Then Chumichkina filed a report to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (seen by OVD-Info) stating: «I request measures to be taken against Khisyametdinov, who made statements against the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the policies of the President of the Russian Federation. His actions thus discredited the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation aimed at defending the interests of the Russian Federation to protect its borders».
Not a Communist
How did IT specialist Damir Khisyametdinov, who does not adhere to communist ideology, became an observer for the Russian Communist Party in the presidential elections?
In 2011, during the State Duma elections when official figures indicated a comically fraudulent turnout of 146% in the Rostov region and independent observers documented numerous violations nationwide, Damir helped the local branch of the Russian Communist Party to broadcast a protest rally.
«The backstory is that Alexander Anidalov (a deputy of the Saratov Regional Duma and the author of the phrase about tanks and barricades — OVD-Info) and I have shared history. We grew up together, lived in neighboring houses, and went to the same school. Now I feel somewhat uncomfortable to contact him, because he is now the regional head of the Russian Communist Party», says Damir.
In addition, Khisyametdinov adds that in Balakovo «the Communist Party has significant presence, because there have been practically no other parties here» — except for United Russia and the neo-Nazi Russian National Unity. So he already took part in the presidential elections in 2012 as an observer for the Communist Party.
After moving to Moscow, Damir served as an observer again in 2019, once again for the Communist Party, at the elections to the Moscow City Duma. When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, he returned to Balakovo and met Kirill Rumyantsev, a young activist and future deputy chairman of the Saratov Yabloko party. Damir observed for this party on voting days in 2021 and 2022.