Press Release, 26.08.2022

Photo: Nikita Arkin / Photo from the social media

Another Yabloko candidate for municipal deputies, Nikita Arkin, who was nominated by Yabloko to run in the Basmanny district of Moscow, was detained today. The police came to the office where Nikita works so that to detain him. Yulia Tregubova, a lawyer from the OVD-Info human rights NGO, is not allowed to the police department where Arkin was taken. Nikita is charged with Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (“propaganda or public demonstration of Nazi symbols of signs, or symbols or signs of extremist organisations”), which may deprive him of the opportunity to be elected.

According to the team of Yabloko candidates in the Basmanny district of Moscow, another Yabloko candidate for this district, Savva Karpov, is facing detention. Unidentified people on behalf of Karpov distributed leaflets with the symbols of Alexei Navalny’s Headquarters (Alexei Navaly’s organization was recognized in Russia as an extremist organization). The Territorial Electoral Commission summoned Karpov for an explanation. A police car was on duty outside the Territorial Electoral Commission building at that moment.

Yabloko candidates in Moscow – Nikolai Kasyan (the Khamovniki district) and Tatyana Kasimova (the Khamovniki district) and Anna Shatunovskaya-Byurno (Yakimanka) – were detained two days before under the same charges and according to the same pattern. They were also asked to come to the Territorial Electoral Commission, where they were detained and spent the night in the police department, and then were taken to court and convicted under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.

In total, ten candidates for municipal deputies from Yabloko were charged under Article 20.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses and have already lost or may lose their right to be elected. The list of registered candidates for the municipal elections in Moscow is published on our website.

Read more about the persecution of Yabloko members after the start of the “special operation”.