The Moscow police department said late on Saturday that it had seized the election leaflets of anti-corruption activist and Moscow mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny, who secured an official nomination for Moscow's upcoming mayoral race earlier this month.
"Under the law on Moscow mayor's elections, candidates are allowed to start their campaign no earlier than 40 days before the elections, so members of [Navalny's] campaign headquarters acted in breach of the current legislation," a spokesman for the Moscow police department said.
The snap Moscow mayor elections are set for September 8.
A sanctioned rally in support of Navalny was held in Moscow's Trubnaya Ploshchad on Saturday afternoon. According to the Moscow police department, members of Navalny's election team distributed "agitprop products in support of Navalny."
"A representative of the Moscow Electoral Commission, who arrived [to the area], confirmed that actions of Navalny's campaign headquarters were illegal," the police spokesman said. "In accordance with the law, those printed products were seized."
Navalny did not return an email request for comment in time for publication, possibly due to the late time in Moscow.
