Press Release, 9.08.2021

Photo: Lev Shlosberg. / Photo by the Yabloko party Press Service

The Moscow City Court made a decision to cancel the registration of Lev Shlosberg as a candidate for State Duma elections in a single-mandate constituency. The decision was adopted on the administrative claim by Andrei Pangayev, a candidate for State Duma deputy in single-mandate constituency No. 207 from the Green Party.

At the same time, the court did not allow a representative of the Yabloko party to participate in the trial as an interested person.

The court decision will be received on 10 August at 16:00 and appealed to the First Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction. “I consider the decision unlawful, unfounded, and essentially illegal,” Lev Shlosberg says. Shlosberg also emphasises that the decision has not come into legal force yet.

Nikolai Rybakov, Yabloko Chairman, and Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, made statements in support of Lev Shlosberg. They assured that the party will provide Shlosberg with all the necessary legal and political support.

It should be noted that Lev Shlosberg, acting Yabloko deputy in the Pskov Regional Assembly of Deputies, journalist and the first laureate of the Boris Nemtsov Prize, tops the territorial group of the electoral list of the Yabloko party in the elections to the State Duma. The Tver and the Pskov regions are joined together in this group. He is also one of the three top candidates on the list of the party in the elections to the Pskov Regional Assembly of Deputies.

STATEMENT BY NIKOLAI RYBAKOV

Yabloko is expressing its protest in connection with the Moscow City Court removing Lev Shlosberg from the elections to the State Duma in a single-mandate constituency in Moscow on the denunciation of a fake pseudo-green party.

The court’s decision is absolutely political in nature, has nothing to do with the Law and is directed not only against Lev Shlosberg, but also against the entire Yabloko party.

The court violated even those new draconian amendments [to the electoral law] that were adopted this summer.

The Yabloko party will seek to overturn this decision and defend the voters’ right to choose.

STATEMENT BY GRIGORY YAVLINSKY

I see the decision of the Moscow City Court to remove Lev Shlosberg from the elections to the State Duma in a single-mandate constituency as unlawful, inconsistent with the law and the Constitution.

On 3 August, the district electoral commission registered Lev Shlosberg as a candidate for deputy in single-mandate constituency No 207. On 5 August, the Central Electoral Commission made a decision to register him as a candidate on the unified electoral list of the Yabloko party. This means that the Ministry of Justice has not established any facts on the basis of which Shlosberg could be deprived of his passive suffrage.

The administrative case, on the basis of which Lev Shlosberg could have been prevented from taking part in the elections, was not initiated by the state authorities, and was not considered by the court.

Plaintiff Andrei Pangayev from the Green Party, with the help of the Moscow City Court, is settling scores with a political opponent and thus wants to free up space for victory for the candidate from United Russia, which cannot win in a fair fight, and the Moscow City Court is following Pangayev’s lead. This is a shameful decision.

Lev Shlosberg is a well-known and respected Russian politician and courageous person. The Yabloko party will never agree with his withdrawal from the elections and will appeal this decision in all instances.