The Ministry of Internal Affairs filed a lawsuit against a former candidate in municipal elections for his statements about verifying signatures

Police demand to refute critical statements addressed to an expert from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, whom the election commission involved in checking signatures in support of the candidate.

The Lyubertsy City Court is considering a claim by the Internal Affairs Directorate for the South-Eastern District of Moscow against former candidate for municipal deputies Valery Katkov.

In 2022, Katkov participated in the elections of the council of deputies of the Vykhino-Zhulebino municipal district and submitted signatures in his support. Some of them were rejected by expert Natalya Rodionova. Katkov did not agree with the expert’s conclusions and published several articles in the Zhulebinsky Boulevard newspaper stating that the expert deliberately invalidated the signatures in order to prevent an independent candidate from participating in the elections.

The police claim, which Kommersant obtained, states that Katkov’s publications “contain information that does not correspond to reality, discredit the business reputation of the Department of Internal Affairs in the South-Eastern Administrative District, cause “significant harm to its authority as a public authority” and undermine “citizens’ trust in employees police."