Press Release, 6.04.2023

Photo: Photo of a poster with information about the candidates for the elections of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg showing Boris Vishnevky (right) and his doppelgangers

On Wednesday, 5 April, the Parliament of St. Petersburg adopted amendments to the city legislation on elections. From now on the “doppelgangers” of candidates must indicate in the ballot their previous names and surnames if they chanced these a year prior to elections.

This means that either the “doppelgangers” will have to live with someone else’s name for at least a year, or the fact that they have changed their real names to the names of their rivals at elections will become visible to voters in the ballots.

“This is, certainly, is a direct consequence of the well-known case of two my “doppelgangers”, who changed their names, surnames and faces in the 2021 elections,” Boris Vishnevsky, MP of the Yabloko faction of the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly, said.

It should be noted that the case of Yabloko’s Boris Vishnevsky in the elections to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg in 2021 was much widely reported and much discussed, as Boris Vishnevsky competed against two pro-government candidates who took his name and surname before their registration in the race. In addition, they changed their appearance so that to be as similar as possible to the politician from the Yabloko party.

BORIS VISHNEVSKY

is Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko Party, member of the Yabloko Federal Political Committee and Bureau, and an MP of the Yabloko faction in the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg