Press Release, 29.08.2021

Photo: Galina Filchenko / Photo: Galina Filchenko’s Facebook page

Galina Filchenko, a candidate for the State Duma from the Yabloko party, may be removed from the State Duma elections for “extremism” – this time, on the denunciation of a deputy from the Communist party. Ivan Utrobin, a deputy of the Kemerovo City Council and the candidate for the State Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation in the Prokopyevsky constituency, filed a lawsuit against his competitor, Yabloko’s Galina Filchenko. Utrobin believes that Filchenko cannot participate in the elections, since he supported the structures of Alexei Navalny, which were recognised as “extremist” in the Russian Federation.

Utrobin believes that Filchenko’s participation in two rallies (the first on 27 July, 2019, for admitting opposition candidates to the elections to the Moscow City Duma, and the second on 23 January, 2021, for the release of political prisoners) is proof of her connection with the “extremist” organisation. The communist claims that these actions were organised by “supporters and participants” of the FBK and other structures of Alexei Navalny.

“The Association of Independent Deputies has many deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. I even defended some of them in the courts myself. I can only guess what could have prompted this deputy to such a step,” Galina Filchenko comments on the law suit.

At the court hearings held on 27 August, the court filed a request with the Centre for Countering Extremism, which should assess Filchenko’s involvement in “extremism”. The plaintiff Ivan Utrobin did not appear at the trial.

According to sources of the Kemerovo Yabloko, Ivan Utrobin has not been not acting on his own initiative, but filed a law suit in favour of Dmitry Islamov, a candidate for the State Duma from the ruling United Russia party. Islamov is a deputy of the State Duma from United Russia and a former Deputy Governor of Kuzbass.

This is not the first time that candidates from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation are trying to remove Yabloko from the elections through courts. In St. Petersburg, two similar claims from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation were filed on 7 August against two Yabloko candidates for the Legislative Assembly – Viktor Boldin and Arseny Afinogenov. The communists complained about the allegedly incorrectly drawn Yabloko internal documents that had been submitted for registration of Yabloko candidates. However, the law “On Elections to the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly” does not establish requirements for the internal documents of political parties. The St. Petersburg City Court refused to remove Viktor Boldin from the elections. The lawsuit against Arseny Afinogenov was withdrawn the next day.

Lev Shlosberg and Natalya Rezontova, Yabloko candidates in single-mandate constituencies and the federal list, and Viktor Rau, Yabloko canadidate in a single-mandate constituency, have already been removed from the State Duma elections on a fictitious pretext of their alleged involvement in an “extremist organisation”.