The candidate, who had foreign shares left, was removed from the election

The Ulyanovsk Regional Court removed the candidate from the “New People” party, Alexander Kaplin, from the election. Kaplin owns shares of foreign companies. The politician tried to get rid of them, but managed to sell only a part – after the introduction of sanctions against Russia by the European Union and many other countries, the shares were blocked.

Actions to cancel Kaplin’s registration as a candidate were filed by the district and regional election commissions. They pointed out that the politician owns “foreign financial instruments”, which does not allow him to run for office. The commission made the same claims against another candidate – Mikhail Vuyko from the “Just Russia – For Truth” party. Uyko withdrew his candidacy voluntarily. Kaplin, on the other hand, intends to appeal the court’s decision, proving that he has no way of getting rid of the assets, since they are blocked, and it is impossible to either sell them or give them away.

Alexander Kaplin is a lawyer, environmentalist and public activist. In 2005–2010, he was a deputy of the Ulyanovsk city council, and from 2011 to 2019 he headed the regional administration of Rosprirodnadzor. In the elections in his district, he would be one of the main competitors of the secretary of the regional branch of “United Russia” Vasily Gvozdev.

As “Kommersant” clarifies with reference to lawyer Lyudmila Moroz, if the ban on actions with foreign shares is imposed due to sanctions, this cannot be a legal basis for refusing to register a candidate. However, the representative of the regional election committee, Ivan Gusev, said that it is up to the court to decide whether the candidate could get rid of his assets or not.