For the elections to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, which will be held in September, the leader of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly Boris Vishnevsky and two candidates who are his namesakes have nominated themselves. Both of them changed their first and last names, Novaya Gazeta claims.

The candidates’ patronymics differ only – Lazarevich (for Vishnevsky from Yabloko), Ivanovich (for one of his namesakes, nominated from the Green party) and Gennadievich (for the second namesake). At the same time, there is no mention of the last two candidates on the Internet, Novaya Gazeta notes.

According  to the St. Petersburg election commission, Boris Ivanovich Vishnevsky was born on April 17, 1962 in the village of Ponomarevo, Kirillovsky district, Vologda region. “Novaya Gazeta” found a person in St. Petersburg with such data. Previously, his name was Viktor Ivanovich Bykov, he was the secretary of the United Russia branch in one of the municipal districts of St. Petersburg.

Boris Gennadievich Vishnevsky, according  to the election committee, was born on May 31, 1978 in the city of Torzhok, Kalinin region, registered in the St. Petersburg region of Ust-Slavyanka and heads the sales department at the Europroject Group firm. According to Novaya Gazeta, his name used to be Alexei Shmelev, and back in February 2021 he used a passport for this surname. The publication did not find any connection between him and any political organizations.

The Novaya Gazeta correspondent called Vishnevsky’s namesakes. When the journalist called them by this name, both said that he had the wrong number. Vishnevsky’s namesake declined to comment.

The technology is not new, it has been used since the end of the last century: before the elections, some marginalized people take the names, and sometimes the names of opposition politicians, officially change their passports, and then register as candidates in the same constituencies. According to the organizers of the campaign (the idea is attributed to the political strategist Alexei Koshmarov, now Trubetskoy), part of the voters intending to vote for the oppositionist will by mistake vote for the spoiler with the same name

(C)MEDUZA 2021