Nikolai Bondarenko will not be able to participate in the State Duma elections, according to a ruling by the Saratov Regional Court.
У Nikolai Bondarenko failed to challenge the fine for displaying extremist materials, which Was assigned him at the end of August. The reason was a post with a photo Alexey Navalny — it was published on the Telegram channel "Nikolai Bondarenko Live," to which the Saratov politician, according to him, has no connection.
Appeal was considered behind closed doors—as the court explained, due to the presence of "extremist materials" in the case. The judge, however, retired to the deliberation room twice during the hearings—after Bondarenko asked Submit a request to Roskomnadzor to establish the channel's true owner and order an expert examination to determine whether it had been edited. Both requests were ultimately denied.
The Saratov communist rose to fame several years ago when, as a regional Duma deputy, he asked uncomfortable questions of the authorities live on air, and his YouTube channel boasted two million subscribers.
This year, he headed the united territorial group in the State Duma elections, which includes Udmurtia и PermAt the end of August, a court fined him 1000 rubles for displaying extremist symbols—a statute that prohibits him from participating in elections.
Even before the start of today's hearing, Bondarenko told reporters that the fine he was facing was an attempt to put pressure on communists across the country.
“This shows the weakness of the authorities – that on the eve of the elections to the State Duma they are absolutely weak and insignificant,”сказал He. - Their only attempt is to resort to this political chaos and remove their opponents from the elections.”
On counting According to the Verstka publication, posts about Alexei Navalny are the most popular reason for disqualifying opposition candidates from running in elections (in the past couple of months, this article has served as the basis for disqualifying 17 candidates). Mentions of Instagram and Facebook, both banned in Russia, are second (7). A total of 36 non-United Russia candidates have been disqualified from running in single-mandate constituencies since the September elections to the State Duma and regional Legislative Assemblies. Nineteen of them are members of Yabloko, and eight are members of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
While the court was considering the appeal of Nikolai Bondarenko, another communist took off from the elections in Omsk region - Konstantin Belousov ran for the Legislative Assembly, but the electoral commission discovered that he had “foreign financial instruments.”
Also remove candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Alexandra Kuteleva и Valentin Akimov from the elections to the Legislative Assembly demanded electoral commission Pskov region — the reason is still unknown.
В Chelyabinsk Green Party candidate Artem Kungurtsev demanded to be removed from the State Duma elections of the Yabloko candidate Yaroslava Shcherbakova — for an election campaign video that allegedly violated copyright (it featured Banksy graffiti and an image of Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov).
Video: Deputy Vladimir Esipov
