Will Navalny be Listed as a Candidate in Russia's Presidential Elections?

The Russian newspaper "Vedomosti" commented on the yesterday's official campaign for the presidential election in March. 23 People who have already said they will fight for the post, the head of state Vladimir Putin, Liberal Democrat leader Vladimir Zhirinovski, co-founder of the Yablokos opposition party Grigoriy Yavlinsky, business ombudsman Boris Titov and TV host Ksenia Sobchak.

Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny will also insist on being registered as a candidate by the Russian CEC, Notes Vedomosti. The law, however, does not entitle him to be elected as convicted of abuse. Navalny himself points out that the European Court of Human Rights has twice confirmed that he is innocent. Navalny announced yesterday to the CEC that the initiative group in support of his candidacy will meet on December 24th. Meetings will take place in 20 Russian cities. However, the lawyer of the anti-corruption fund of the opposition party, Ivan Zhdanov, expects the events to be stopped.

Navalny is going to use the situation to the end and that's the right strategy, said political analyst Alexander Kinev - while the music is playing, people listen to it. It is reminiscent of authorities' actions against "unwanted" candidates during previous campaigns: different approaches are used - from tracking gaps in submitted documents to sudden power cuts. But 20 meetings failed at once - that would raise a lot of noise in the media, the expert says. The standard practice in criminal proceedings is a rejection while checking the applicant's documents, but in this case the authorities may have to look for new forms of rejection, he adds.

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