KPRF Candidate Denied Registration Over Old Social Media Links
The day after the arrest of Apostolevsky, deputies of the CPRF faction submitted a complaint to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast against deputies of the United Russia party, accompanied by screenshots of links to social media accounts belonging to Meta, which has been declared an extremist organization.
Consensus
- Ivan Apostolevsky, a member of the KPRF faction in the Legislative Assembly of Leningrad Oblast, was denied candidate registration for elections.
- The denial was based on an administrative penalty from July 2018, when he was sentenced to 10 days of administrative arrest for posting links to Instagram and Facebook in VKontakte.
- The links were considered by authorities as demonstrating 'extremist symbolism' because Meta (owner of Instagram and Facebook) is designated as an extremist organization in Russia.
- Apostolevsky's posts were from 2018 and were removed after the administrative protocol was issued.
- The Leningrad Regional Court upheld the refusal of registration on August 12.
- The KPRF submitted a complaint to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) against United Russia deputies for similar social media activity.
- The MVD responded that the materials provided by KPRF were either removed or inaccessible.
- The MVD did not initiate proceedings against United Russia deputies despite the complaints.
- Apostolevsky stated that the law is applied selectively and that there is unequal treatment under the law.
- Apostolevsky plans to appeal the court's decision.
Points of divergence
- The administrative arrest was based on links posted in Instagram and Facebook, not VKontakte. — tg_echoonline_news
- The posts were made in VKontakte, not Instagram or Facebook. — tg_sotavisionmedia
- The KPRF submitted a statement against three specific United Russia deputies: Svetlana Zhurova, Tatyana Kusayko, and Olga Zanko. — tg_echoonline_news
- The defense submitted 52 examples of similar violations by deputies from other parties. — tg_sotavisionmedia
- More than 35 St. Petersburg deputies from various factions restricted access to their profiles or removed surnames from Telegram channels by early August. — tg_echoonline_news
- The defense requested the summoning of two witnesses and a referral to the Constitutional Court. — tg_sotavisionmedia
Coverage (2 sources)
- Deputies from KPRF in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast refused registration for elections due to administrative protocol for links... — ЭХО / Новости
- Candidate from KPRF Ivan Apostolevsky had his candidacy banned due to old VKontakte posts with links to 'ext... — SOTAvision
Key entities
- KPRF
- Ivan Apostolevsky
- Leningrad Region
- VKontakte
- Saint Petersburg
- Leningrad Oblast Court
- United Russia
- Leningrad Oblast
- State Assembly
- Sotavision