Ekaterina Duntsova filed a lawsuit against the CEC in the Supreme Court

Rzhev journalist Ekaterina Duntsova filed a lawsuit against the Central Election Committee in the Supreme Court of Russia on Monday. She intends to challenge the CEC’s refusal to register her initiative group to participate in the presidential elections. According to Duntsova, the court should make a decision no later than next Friday, December 29.

On December 20, Ekaterina Duntsova submitted documents to the CEC for registration of her initiative group. Registration of the group would allow it to start pre-election campaigning and collecting signatures for nomination as a candidate for the presidency of Russia in the 2024 elections. However, on December 23, the CEC refused to register the initiative group, first referring to formal violations in the preparation of documents, and then to the fact that the initiative group of voters “was not created.”

Duntsova claims that the officials’ arguments do not correspond to reality: a meeting of the initiative group was held on December 17, registration was carried out and the agenda was approved. At the same time, according to her, representatives of the CEC were also present at the meeting.

• Duntsova is a journalist from the city of Rzhev in the Tver Region, a former deputy of the Rzhev City Duma. In November, she announced that she was nominating her candidacy for the presidential election. She advocates ending the war in Ukraine and against political repression in Russia.
• The initiative group of Duntsova’s supporters already includes at least several thousand Russians. Its meetings in different cities of Russia are hampered by police visits and detentions of political supporters.
• Pro-Kremlin mass media claim that Duntsova is “financed by fugitive oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky”, but do not present any evidence of their claims. Many Russian opposition figures supported Duntsova, for example, the director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Ivan Zhdanov and human rights activist Lev Ponomarev.
• The elections of the head of state will be held in Russia on March 15-17, 2024. As expected, the current President Vladimir Putin put forward his candidacy for them. If he is elected, he will stand for the fifth presidential term.