The Moscow City Court rejected the claim of former head of Navalny's headquarters Stepanov against the election commission, which prohibited him from collecting signatures for nomination to the State Duma

The Moscow City Court refused to allow former head Oleg Stepanov to open an election account to participate in the State Duma elections. this He himself announced on Twitter.

The court recognized as legal the refusal of the district election commission for the Nagatinsky single-mandate constituency, which prohibited Stepanov from opening an election account due to involvement in an extremist organization.

The oppositionist challenged this ban, since the decision to recognize it as an extremist organization has not yet entered into force. The day before, Stepanov published the commission’s objections to his claim.

The documents confirmed that the decision had not yet entered into force, but there was a reference to the ruling of the Constitutional Court, which noted that it is permissible to execute a court decision before the decision enters into force, when “due to special circumstances, a delay in its execution may lead to significant damage.”

“In this case, it would lead to significant damage to protected interests and a violation of the rights of voters, since it would allow Stepanov to mislead voters about his status,” the election commission noted.

Earlier, the election commission accepted the documents of Stepanov, who announced his participation in the State Duma elections as a self-nominated candidate.

In early June, President Vladimir Putin signed a bill banning participation in elections at any level for people who worked in extremist organizations and helped them before the court decision to ban them.

Since the end of January, the oppositionist has been under house arrest for a “sanitary matter” due to a January rally in support of politician Alexei Navalny. According to the Investigative Committee, he and other defendants published calls on social networks to go to a rally on January 23, which created the threat of a “mass infection of people” with the coronavirus.