Will The Real Boris Vishnevsky,

please raise his hand?

Russian opposition politicians are used to running against candidates with the same surname, it’s a commonly used tactic that can derail a few precious votes in close elections, this sort of “double” candidates is often seen during Russia’s election cycles, it is a shady tactic that ensures votes are split between two namesake candidates thus increasing another candidate’s chances of winning, but this is a first for two reasons, firstly there are three Boris Vishnevsky's, the original and two others that have changed both their Christian and surnames, secondly the two other imposters, previously known as Viktor Bykov and the other Alexei Shmelev, have dramatically changed their looks, to match his,

it is unclear whether they also turned to digital editing software, but they are all balding, greying, and sport matching goatees, the original Vishnevsky labelled his opponents’ tactics as “political fraud”, but according to Russian law, it’s perfectly legal for political candidates to change their names to that of their opponents, just months before an election, so there isn’t much that he can do about it, the liberal candidate said he didn’t know his rival’s motivations for posing as his doubles in the upcoming municipal elections, but added that he “doesn’t think they agreed to embarrass themselves like this for free”, according to Russian media, the Russian Central Election Commission declared itself outraged by Vishnevsky’s double candidates, but made it clear that they would not be removed from the list, so who is the real Boris Vishnevsky? the gentleman with the tie.