A St. Petersburg urban preservationist has been arrested and is now barred from running in the elections.
In St. Petersburg, the Leninsky District Court found prominent urban preservationist Yaroslav Kostrov guilty of displaying extremist symbols. Due to this administrative penalty, the leader of the "Central District for a Comfortable Living Environment" movement will now be barred from participating in the upcoming elections.
Arrested for a VKontakte link posted five years ago
Kostrov was detained yesterday afternoon in the Admiralty district of the city. The charge stemmed from an old VKontakte post from 2021. Specifically, law enforcement officers unexpectedly discovered a direct link to Instagram, which is banned in Russia and designated as extremist.
However, the activist himself categorically denied any guilt in court. The defense insisted that posting a simple link did not constitute displaying prohibited logos. Nevertheless, the court sentenced him to 10 days of administrative arrest. Kostrov himself commented on this decision with irony.
"We'll appeal. [The decision] is understandable and fair. Because it's an election."
Federal trend: candidate purges before voting
As a result, this court ruling effectively completely deprives the well-known St. Petersburg activist of his passive voting rights. Consequently, he will no longer be able to run in the upcoming Legislative Assembly elections.
Moreover, this case is part of a larger process of eliminating independent politicians. Similarly, in recent months, security forces have been massively barring representatives of the Yabloko and Communist Party of the Russian Federation parties from participating in election campaigns in the regions.
For example, last week in Ufa, law enforcement officers detained Denis Malyshev, a candidate for the local City Council. In Khabarovsk, former City Council Chairman Mikhail Sidorov, who was previously fined for displaying symbols of the non-existent "Ya/My Sergey Furgal" movement, will be barred from running in the elections on similar grounds. Furthermore, the day before, prominent politician Boris Nadezhdin was charged with displaying extremist symbols.
