Press Release, 4.08.2026

Photo: Dmitry Khorzov / Photo from his Telegram channel

Dmitry Khorzov, a candidate for deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, received notification from the St. Petersburg City Court on 3 August that his opponent from the pro-government LDPR party was seeking to have his election registration annulled. The territorial electoral commission had earlier “lost” the documents of Khorzov’s nomination. He proved he was in the right by presenting video footage showing him submitting a complete and correct set of documents. The missing documents were quickly found.

The lawsuit was filed by Vladimir Osmolovsky from LDPR, who had previously tried to stand for election on behalf of New People in 2024 and was unsuccessful, spending almost a million roubles on his campaign yet failing to win even 750 votes.

In the lawsuit, Vladimir Osmolovsky stated that his rights were violated by the date on which the notification confirming Khorzov had no foreign assets was received. The certificate was dated 27 June, whereas Khorzov acquired his candidate status on 15 July, meaning he could allegedly have opened a foreign account in the intervening period. Secondly, the LDPR member took issue with the wording used by Yabloko in nominating Khorzov. He is asking the court to establish whether there is any difference between nomination as part of a list of candidates for single-mandate constituencies and Khorzov’s personal nomination for a single-mandate constituency, as well as between “a nominated list of candidates” and “a list of nominated candidates” for single-mandate constituencies.

All these claims amount to nothing more than a play on words. There are no genuine grounds to call into question the legality of Dmitry Khorzov’s nomination.

“This is a dirty game, without doubt a technical candidate is being used to eliminate strong rivals with a real chance of winning,” Dmitry Khorzov concluded.

St. Petersburg Yabloko stresses that the lawsuit is groundless, and that the party will defend Dmitry Khorzov’s registration by every means permitted by law.