Press Release, 5.09.2019

Photo: Yevgeny Bunimovich

Yevgeny Bunimovich, candidate to the Moscow City Duma and Ombudsman for Children’s Rights in Moscow, appealed to Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Russian Minister of Interior, and Yuri Chaika, Public Prosecutor General, with a request to initiate a criminal case on the fact of production and distribution of fake campaign materials through the mailboxes of residents of his constituency.

A fake made under popular Versiya (Version) paper was distributed through the mailboxes of several districts in northern Moscow on the night of 4 – 5 September. Materials about Yabloko’s candidate including those on the front page of the paper, were entitled as follows: “How much Bunimovich loves children?”, “Pedophiles in law,” “Should we drink a mandate or two?” and are placed next to the stories about maniacs and pedophiles.

Photo: a faked paper.

Nikolai Zyatkov, President and Editor of the Versiya publishing house, said that the newspaper distributed in the district was a fake and had nothing to do with the real newspaper.

Yevgeny Bunimovich demands from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Public Prosecutor General Office to find the printing house that printed the fraudulent newspaper, withdraw the printed copies of the paper, and find those who ordered and executed this crime.

“It is obvious that the fake was printed and distributed by criminals in order to slander Yevgeny Bunimovich and prevent him from being elected to the Moscow City Duma. I believe that the only person who benefits from this is Mikhail Balykhin, a United Russia member disguised as a self-nominated candidate, and the authorities place a stake on him,” says Nikolai Rybakov, head of the Yabloko Electoral Headquarters.

Earlier leaflets with libel against Bunimovich were distributed through the mailboxes in his constituency. Appeals from the headquarters of Yevgeny Bunimovich to the Moscow Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Moscow Department of the Interior did not bring results.