Translated material
In Novgorod, a court removed two Yabloko members from the elections
The reason was their participation in the January action in support of Alexei Navalny.
August 27 2021 The Novgorod Regional Court canceled the registration of Maxim Nikitin and Roman Maksimov as candidates for the Novgorod Regional Duma from the Yabloko party.
The reason was the participation of Nikitin and Maksimov in a rally in support of Alexei Navalny January 23, 2021; then both of them were detained and then punished in administrative procedure for participating in an uncoordinated action. The court considered this as involvement in the activities of Navalny's recognized extremist organizations. The defense of Nikitin and Maksimov intends to challenge this decision.
From our point view, an expression of protest in connection with the criminal prosecution of Alexei Navalny should not be regarded as involvement in the activities of his organizations. Recall Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), Citizens' Rights Protection Foundation (FZPG) and Aleksey's headquarters Navalny were recognized as extremist organizations on June 9, 2021. Solution The ban entered into force on 4 August. We think it's legal there are no grounds for banning Navalny's organizations as extremist. More our position can be found here . We also believe that the amendments prohibiting "involved" in the activities extremist organizations to participate in elections unduly restrict freedom associations.
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