Press Release, 20.07.2019

A rally organised with support of the Yabloko party and demanding the registration of all independent candidates for the Moscow City Duma elections was held in Moscow in Sakharov Prospect. Over 20,000 people took part in the action. Three of the five candidates from Yabloko, who were withdrawn from the elections, were among the first to speak.

Photo: Anastasia Bryukhanova

Recognizing thousands of signatures for independent candidates as invalid means that “the authorities have told us: you are no one and you are not here!” said Anastasia Bryukhanova, Yabloko candidate for district No 42. The electoral commission even rejected her mother’s signature. “But we do exist, we are here in this square!” Bryukhanova said.

Yelena Rusakova, head of the Gagarinsky Municipal Council of Moscow, who intended to run in her district No 37, called non-registration of opposition candidates “a large-scale crime” falling under two articles of the criminal code at once: Article 278 “forcible retention of power”, and Article 141 “obstruction of the exercise of electoral rights by a group of persons in a preliminary conspiracy”. Yelena Rusakova called for disbanding of the Moscow Electoral Commission and dismissal of its head Valentin Gorbunov.

Photo: Kirill Gontcharov

According to Kirilll Gontcharov, candidate for district No 32, for the first time in many years elections to the Moscow City Duma have got into a political history, and it was the authorities which made them so.  “From today, the campaign to the Moscow City Duma is not about benches or control over provision of housing and utilities services. From today, this campaign is about politics, about the turnover of power and honesty. And we will win! This is our city! ” Goncharov said in his speech.

Photo: Emilia Slabunova and Yelena Rusakova

The rally was also attended by those candidates from Yabloko who managed to get registration in the race: Yevgeny Bunimovich, Moscow Ombudsman for Children’s Rights (district No 6), and Darya Besedina (district No 8), as well as party Chairperson Emilia Slabunova.

“Our main demand is that all opposition candidates are allowed to run and all persons and structures impeding the realisation of citizens’ rights are brought to justice,” Emilia Slabunova said. She also called the present situation when most of the opposition candidates were not allowed to run “a mockery of the elections”.

Photo: Yevgeny Bunimovich (second from the right)

It should be noted that eight candidates from the Yabloko party managed to collect voters’ signatures in favour of their nomination (which is a mandatory requirement to get registered in the elections), however, five out of eight Yabloko candidates were not registered: Sergei Mitrokhin (district No 43), Andrei Babushkin (district No 11), Yelena Rusakova (district No 37), Kirill Goncharov (district  No 32) and Anastasia Bryukhanova (district No 42). Three candidates received registration: Yevgeny Bunimovich (district No 6), Maxim Kruglov (district No 14) and Daria Besedina (district No 8).