The situation became even more complicated by the time of presidential elections. According to official data of the State Statistics Committee, there were 108.9m voters in Russia in the December parliamentary elections, but the number dropped to 108.06m in the presidential poll in March. So, the population dropped by 840,000 people.

Moreover, interim figures presented by Central Election Commission during this period differed widely – from 110m to 106m voters. Not only Russian but also foreign media noticed this discrepancy.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation feared a low turnout in the elections and took measures to artificially increase turnout.

According to the Carnegie Endowment, there were 108,906,244 citizens on voter lists in the December parliamentary elections, while the number dropped to 108,064,281 in the presidential ballot in March. Some people who had just reached the voting age of 18 could have been left off the lists.

The Central Election Commission took these measures to ensure the required turnout for the elections to be valid, after a 55.75 percent turnout in the parliamentary vote. If people not on the list were turning up at polling stations, their names were put back in, according to the Carnegie Endowment.