Tomsk activist Anton Isakov was arrested for 15 days and will now be barred from participating in the elections.
In Tomsk, Anton Isakov, head of the "Candidates' Headquarters," was arrested for 15 days under administrative charges for displaying extremist symbols. The court ruling effectively bars the independent politician from participating in the September elections to the Tomsk Region Legislative Duma. Using "extremist" charges to purge the electoral field has become a regular practice for Russian authorities to eliminate inconvenient candidates in the regions.
Extremism without specifics and new claims from the prosecutor's office
Judge Ekaterina Galyautdinova of the Kirovsky District Court in Tomsk found Isakov guilty of "displaying extremist symbols." However, what exactly the court considered to be these symbols remains unknown at this time.
The arrest of Anton Isakov, head of the Tomsk "Candidates' Headquarters," was announced this morning. "They also served him with a summons to appear at the prosecutor's office for another administrative case—under Article 20.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. The reason for this was the online publication of information about the activities of an organization deemed undesirable," the activist wrote.
A summons to the military registration and enlistment office and previous arrests for non-existent hooliganism
At the end of March, a court had already arrested Isakov for 14 days on an administrative charge of hooliganism (which never happened). Prior to this, the mayor's office had denied him permission to hold a rally against internet blocking, and the military commissar had issued a summons for "information clarification."
Anton Isakov planned to run for the Tomsk Regional Duma in September as an independent candidate. Now, due to his conviction on "extremism" charges, he is legally barred from running for a year.
Mass exclusion of independent politicians from elections
The law on "displaying extremist symbols" has become a convenient way for the authorities to disqualify inconvenient candidates from elections. For example, at least six Yabloko politicians will already be barred from participating in the September elections in various regions of the Russian Federation.
Among them are the leader of the party's youth cell, Yegor Tkachenko, and the chairman of the Yabloko branch, Maxim Petlin, from Yekaterinburg, Karelian deputy Emilia Slabunova, and the chairman of the Yakut Yabloko, Anatoly Nogovitsyn.
