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FAS still allowed parties to advertise themselves before the elections
A month before the official start of the State Duma election campaign, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) finally recognized the possibility of placing political advertising not only during the election campaign, but also during the break between elections. In early July, the Central Election Commission asked the FAS for clarification on this issue and within a month received several contradictory answers. During this time, billboards of political parties in Russian regions were removed and hung again. In particular, made taking into account the ban on political advertising.The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia on Friday published on its official website the minutes of meetings of the FAS and the Central Election Commission on the placement of political advertising on advertising structures. The parties agreed that parties could advertise themselves before the elections, but only without direct calls for a yes or no vote.
Let us recall that in June the FAS declared that it was illegal to place advertisements of political parties on billboards. In its response to a request from the Central Election Commission, the FAS explained that political advertising does not fall within the definition given in the Law “On Advertising.” At the same time, according to the law, advertising structures must be used only for the purpose of distributing advertising. The Central Election Commission in response stated that they do not agree with the position of the antimonopoly service, they intend to continue consultations on this problem and resolve a certain contradiction between the federal law “On Advertising,” which prohibits the placement of political advertising on advertising structures, and the constitutional law “On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights.” and the right to participate in a referendum of citizens of the Russian Federation,” which provides for the placement of campaign materials “on buildings, structures and other objects” during the campaign period.
According to the law, the concept of “advertising” includes only commercial information about a product circulating on the market. Since objects of political propaganda in Russia are not goods on the market and are not associated with business activities, political advertising does not fall under the concept of “advertising.” All this did not allow the FAS to allow the placement of political advertising on advertising structures. At the same time, the ban on placing political advertising on advertising structures does not affect the possibility of distributing it through other means (theater stands, posters, information stands). As a result, the CEC and the FAS agreed that parties could use billboard advertising only during the election campaign.
Without waiting for the dispute to end, municipal authorities began removing street posters of parties preparing for the State Duma elections. Already posted and paid for billboards of A Just Russia, Civil Force, LDPR and other parties were damaged. Kursk Mayor Viktor Surzhikov practically predicted the results of the correspondence between the FAS and the Central Election Commission. In early July, he banned political advertising on billboards, after which the “A Just Russia” campaign was removed from forty billboards. True, party members promised to look for other interpretations of the legislation and circumvent the new ban - so far nothing prevents them from placing social advertising using party slogans.
According to some reports, billboards of various parties in St. Petersburg, Moscow and a number of other regions were damaged. Representatives of the parties then stated that they would try to creatively solve the problem - the "Socialist Revolutionaries" played on the word "justice" on their posters, and in the Yaroslavl region many LDPR posters appeared with the slogan "1000 useful deeds - for the 1000th anniversary of Yaroslavl", although it was celebrated will only be in three years. The Liberal Democrats also promised to sue the FAS decision.
State Duma deputy Alexander Lebedev, who was not allowed to place his advertisement against slot machines in Moscow, complained to the FAS, saying that billboards of the “Young Guard of United Russia” were hanging everywhere in Moscow, touching on the topic of gambling.
Last Friday, the minutes of the last meeting of the head of the antimonopoly service Igor Artemyev and the chairman of the Central Election Commission Vladimir Churov were made public. In it, unexpectedly, political advertising is practically recognized as social and there is a reference to the amendments to the law “On Advertising” that have come into force regarding outdoor advertising. Now “information including information about political parties and other electoral associations, individual political figures, which does not contain signs of election campaigning, is allowed to be placed on advertising structures under the terms of social advertising.” That is, parties can place any advertising, with the exception of direct calls to vote for some political force - such calls are still considered campaigning and are possible only during the official election campaign.