Press Release, 01.09.2021

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

A new lawsuit was filed against Galina Filchenko, a candidate for State Duma deputy from the Yabloko party in the Prokopyevsky single-mandate district (the Kemerovo region), so that to withdraw her from the elections. This time her rival from the Green party Yelena Matveyeva intends to prove Filchenko’s connection with the “extremists”. Earlier, a similar claim was filed by the Communist Party candidate Ivan Utrobin.

After numerous requests from journalists to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and criticism within the Communist Party, Utrobin withdrew his claim during the court hearings on 30 August. However, representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office opposed the cessation of the case.

On 31 August, a new lawsuit was filed by Filchenko’s rival from the Green Party. The lawsuit again asserted that the Yabloko candidate had ties to the “extremist organisation” of Alexei Navalny’s Headquarters. The new plaintiff is represented by the same lawyer Alexander Todorov, who previously represented Ivan Utrobin.

The next court hearings will take place on 2 September at 14:00

“Whoever would have thought that my election campaign would change to a judicial one. Now, after such a prompt substitution of the plaintiff, it becomes clear that the matter is not in the red or green political “colours” of the applicants, but in certain customers from the regional administration,” Galina Filchenko comments on the new lawsuit.

According to sources of the Yabloko branch in the Kemerovo region, both plaintiffs are acting in favour of the United Russia candidate Dmitry Islamov. Islamov is a current State Duma deputy from United Russia, and a former Deputy Governor of Kuzbass.

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”.