In mid-September, FBK published a list prepared jointly with the team of Yulia Navalnaya and Maxim Katz: it included 206 specific candidates, and in eight more districts the authors could not determine whom it was better to vote for. The organizers stated that the goal of “Smart Voting” is to unite votes against “United Russia” around candidates with the highest chances of defeating it.
The Insider compared this list with the preliminary results in all relevant districts and found that the only winner was Communist Party deputy Oleg Smolin. He ran in Moscow District No. 142 in the Omsk Region and, after 100% of the protocols were processed, received 32.31% of the vote.
The United Russia candidate Andrey Bondarenko received 31.87%, and the margin between them was 0.44 percentage points. At the same time, the voting data itself do not allow us to determine what exact role the “Smart Voting” recommendation played in Smolin’s victory.
In a number of other districts, the candidates recommended by FBK and Katz lost to representatives of the parliamentary opposition. In the Korkino District No. 190 in the Chelyabinsk Region, Polina Krepak from “New People” was recommended, but the district was won by Valery Gartung from “A Just Russia”; in the Tolyatti District No. 160, Vladimir Motryukov from “New People” was recommended, and Communist Leonid Kalashnikov won; in the Bratsk District No. 98, Tatyana Bashkatova from “New People” received the recommendation, and Oleg Novitsky from the Communist Party took first place.
RBC, citing sources close to the presidential administration, wrote that the Moscow District was among four districts designated for a possible Communist Party victory, and all four were ultimately won by communists. Vedomosti also noted that among the five winning Communist Party candidates, only Irina Ivanova in St. Petersburg won a district that had not been agreed with United Russia.
According to the preliminary official results, United Russia won 209 single-mandate districts, the Communist Party — five, A Just Russia — four, LDPR — two, Rodina — one, self-nominated candidates — four. The CEC plans to announce the final election results on September 25, and The Insider’s count concerns only single-mandate districts and does not include seats from party lists.
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