Recent revelations by Russian TV channel ‘Dozhd’ have exposed the Kremlin’s latest battleground on which they hope to increase voter turnout in the 2018 presidential elections: the dating scene.

According to sources close to the presidential administration, a brand new phone app is to be released called ‘Together to the Elections’, a spin-off of the popular Russian dating service ‘Mamba’.  This innovative new app offers people a unique dating opportunity: to cast your vote together with someone special.

Once you find a match you’re immediately sent a message: “It seems we like each other, let’s go to the polls on September 10!”  The app then allows you to communicate with each other, supposedly to arrange special plans for the big day.

According to Mamba director Andrey Bronetsky, the company was “advised” to accept this rather extraordinary offer.  Bronetsky declined to answer any further questions from Dozhd on the details of this “advice”.  According to sources close to the presidential administration, if the app proves effective in the 2017 municipal elections, then it could be used as one of a number of secret weapons to raise voter turnout in the 2018 presidential elections, where Vladimir Putin is predicted to make a sweeping victory.

Multiple sources close to the administration have confirmed the initiative to raise voter turnout, a question which has loomed over the Kremlin heavily for the last 12 months.  Earlier in the year, Russian business magazine Vedomosti reported the administration’s plans to achieve a “70 for 70” victory in the upcoming elections, a result that would supposedly give the final justification of Putin’s 24 (by the time he leaves) years in office.

The Russian presidential elections are yet to be announced officially, which means that candidates are forbidden from conducting their official election campaigns.  However, what’s clear from recent months is that the Kremlin recognises the need for a high turnout, and is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to ensure it.  Will the dating scene really help to revitalise voter turnout?  It’s doubtful, but the motive itself suggests a throbbing anxiety among the Kremlin’s political strategists.