Liberal International, 02.09.2016 

The Head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alexeyeva, has become Yabloko’s election representative at the elections to the State Duma (Yabloko, LI full-member).

Explaining her decision she said:”I decided to become Yabloko’s representative in its election campaign so that to help the party get Duma mandates.” Alexeyeva also emphasised that Yabloko’s list of candidates represented a broad coalition of democratic forces “reflecting the views and interests of the considerable minority of Russian citizens who are not represented in the current Duma.”

Yabloko has recently come under heavy attack by the Russian government which is on a witch hunt to prevent the party from registering candidates in regions where Yabloko enjoys strong support. Citing a long string of “violations”, Natalia Tarabrina, Judge of the Petrozavodsk City Court, has cancelled the registration of YABLOKO’s list of candidates in the Petrozavodsk City Council. Some of the reasons stated by the judge for her decision include the fact that Yabloko candidates have not listed in theirs CVs when they have finished school while at the same time candidates from other parties have been found to commit a similar “offence.”

Galina Shirshina, who topped the party list in the elections to the Petrozavodsk City Council, has stated that she will appeal the decision in a higher court and “Yabloko would continue to fight.”

The legislative elections in Russia will be held on 18 September 2016.

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