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Half of Russia’s Presidential Candidates Report False Income

Ella Pamfilova Sergei Vedyashkin / Moskva News Agency

Four out of eight candidates registered in Russia’s presidential elections next month are believed to have misreported their income to election officials.

Candidates are required to report the amount and sources of their and their spouses’ incomes dating back six years, according to a list of registration documents approved by Russia’s Central Elections Commission (CEC) last fall.

“We have four candidates with unreliable income data. They have all been made aware of that,”  Ella Pamfilova, the head of Russia's CEC, said in comments carried by Interfax.

Pamfilova promised on Wednesday to inform the public of the discrepancies between the four unnamed candidates’ declared and real income on campaign posters.

Documents detailing the descpreancies published to the CEC suggest the four candidates found to have additional income include Sergei Baburin, Pavel Grudinin, Ksenia Sobchak and Boris Titov.

President Vladimir Putin, the presumed winner of the March 18 vote, was earlier reported to have doubled his official income between 2012 and 2018.

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