An opposition candidate in Russia's upcoming parliamentary elections has seen his campaign leaflets banned for featuring a cartoon of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Vedomosti newspaper reported Friday.
Nikolai Lyaskin, a candidate for the PARNAS opposition party, was told by Moscow's Babushkinsky District Election Commission on Thursday that he must withdraw the leaflets.
They feature cartoons of Russian
President Vladimir Putin, the president's ally Arkady Rotenberg, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Vedomosti reported.
Under new laws which came into force
this April, politicians cannot use the name or image of anyone who
isn't a candidate as part of their election campaign.
Lyaskin said that he
created the leaflets to “test out” the new law after
a Communist Party
candidate in Krasnoyarsk was allowed to use a hand-drawn
image of Stalin in his campaign literature, the newspaper wrote.
The
Krasnoyarsk Election Commission initially
banned the image, but relented
after Russia's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) said that the
restrictions didn't apply to deceased figures or “hand-drawn
images.” The CEC are yet to comment on Lyaskin's case.
"With regard to the cartoons and caricatures there is still no clear criteria,” said Oleg Zakharov, a member of the Russian Association for Political Lawyers. “We still believe that is better for candidates to err on the side of caution,” he told Vedomosti.
