Fines for old videos and music copyright infringement: Regional bans on Apple members from elections continue
A massive wave of Yabloko party candidates being disqualified from election campaigns continues in Russia. In Yekaterinburg, the Novgorod region, and Udmurtia, politicians are being disqualified due to outdated social media posts and the use of music in their videos.
Persecution of Yabloko candidates in Yekaterinburg and Novgorod
In Yekaterinburg, incumbent deputy and Yabloko candidate Konstantin Kiselev was fined 2000 rubles, a NeMoskva source in the courtroom reported. Judge Yulia Lobanova found him guilty of the administrative offense of "displaying extremist symbols."
The charges are based on three VKontakte posts, one of which was published seven years ago. According to security officials, two of the posts contained symbols of Navalny's headquarters, and the third contained a photograph with the caption "Freedom for Pussy Riot."
Kiselev was detained on September 7 along with five other party candidates, and similar reports were drawn up for each of them.
Yekaterinburg turned out to be a city where they literally take things harshly. In some places, they just issued a fine, but here we have Kudelkin arrested for 10 days.
Consequently, a similar disqualification scheme has been implemented in other regions of the country. The Novgorod Regional Electoral Commission officially revoked the registration of Anna Cherepanova, the party's deputy chair and the leader of its list for the regional Duma elections. The formal basis for this was also a recent fine for "displaying extremist symbols."
The reason for the report was a video recording of the 2021 rally on a YouTube channel. However, Cherepanova's defense team emphasizes that she has no connection to the administration of this resource.
The purpose of the prosecution is to remove the region's most popular opposition politician from the elections, which cannot in any way be connected with legality and justice, and is a political order.
Music-related dismissals and general statistics across the country
Moreover, sophisticated pretexts for disqualifying opposition figures are being used in other regions as well. In Udmurtia, the Supreme Court revoked the registration of Iya Boronina, the chair of the local Yabloko branch, who was running for the State Duma. The lawsuit was filed by her direct rival from A Just Russia, Anton Golovkov.
The plaintiff cited the candidate's use of George Thorogood & The Destroyers' "Bad To The Bone" in her campaign videos as the key reason for the cancellation of her registration. The court hearing, however, was held without Boronina's participation; she learned of the decision by chance the day before, in a call from the appellate court.
As a result, according to Yabloko's press service, 18 candidates in single-mandate constituencies have already been withdrawn from the State Duma elections following lawsuits from representatives of other parties. As of today, only 120 candidates from 48 regions of the country remain in the election campaign.
