Opposition members were not allowed to participate in by-elections to the Novosibirsk City Council

Eight self-nominated candidates and representatives of the “Yabloko” party were not allowed to participate in the by-elections to the Novosibirsk City Council in Districts No. 40 (Oktyabrsky district) and No. 49 (Centralny). This was reported by the editorial office of Sibir.Realii, which drew attention to the data of GAS “Vybory”.

Independent candidates from the “Novosibirsk 2020” coalition, Mikhail Ryazantsev and Ekaterina Tereshchenko, were refused registration – they announced that they would appeal these decisions in court.

Ryazantsev was not admitted on the basis of a letter from the Ministry of Justice, in which it is stated that he is allegedly involved in the activities of the Navalny and FBK headquarters (both organizations are considered extremist on the territory of Russia). On the same basis, the city activist was refused registration for the elections to the Berdsk City Council in 2021.

Ekaterina Tereshchenko was barred from the elections allegedly because of her involvement in the Vesna youth opposition movement (also recognized as extremist in Russia). The Ministry of Justice accused the candidate of participating in an anti-war “carousel” on September 24, 2022 in the main square of Novosibirsk (the authorities called “Vesna” the organizer of the action).

Candidates from the “Yabloko” party Maksym Novikov and Petr Kopylov will also not be able to be elected to the city council. Novikov was refused registration due to the fact that he did not collect the required number of signatures for nomination. Kopylov’s election commission rejected the signatures of “almost 20% of voters” – the police considered their passport data and residence address “unreliable”, despite the fact that residents filled out the documents themselves, the party emphasized.

“Candidates not dependent on the current authorities were not allowed to participate in these elections. In many ways, this is a politically motivated decision. Only politically sterile representatives of parliamentary parties who did not collect signatures of voters in the neighborhood rounds will be allowed to continue the election campaign,” the Novosibirsk branch said. Apple”.

In addition, several more self-nominated candidates were not allowed to participate in the district by-elections: Dmitriy Damaev, Alexander Emelyanov, Andrey Vezner and Yevgeny Shamro.

Damaev used to be a member of United Russia. In September 2023, after the gubernatorial elections, he left the party, because it “is ready to accept all rabble and defectors into its ranks.”

Alexander Tolkachev (district #49) was the only registered self-nominator. In the “Yabloko” party, he was called the “developer” candidate. In 2020, he gave an interview as an entrepreneur who defends the interests of the owners of kiosks and trade pavilions in the suburbs. Tolkachev agreed to answer the questions of the Sibir.Realii correspondent later.

• By-elections to the Novosibirsk city council in districts #40 and #49 will be held on December 17, 2023. They were appointed after independent deputies Sergey Boyko and Helga Pirogov, who emigrated from Russia for political reasons, lost their mandates in June 2023.
• In District No. 40, the election commission admitted the following candidates to the elections: Anastasia Andronova (“United Russia”), Elena Braun (“New People”), Dmitry Hryshchenko (“Pensioners’ Party”), Maksym Egorov (CPRF), Yevgeny Kobzev (LDPR) , Andrey Shchukin (“Communists of Russia”).
• In District No. 49, the following are eligible for election: Alexander Baev (“Party of Pensioners”), Alexander Bykovsky (“United Russia”), Ruslan Dudin (“New People”), Alexander Lipatkin (“Communists of Russia”), Pavel Podkolzin (“SRZP” ), Vladyslav Ryzhov (LDPR), Sergey Sukhorukov (CPRF), Alexander Tolkachev (self-promotion).